


Trail of Lies

by ShadowMeowth



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Again, But with Relationships, Gotta Rescue 'Em All, Multi, Post-Canon, Relationship Tags Updated, T rated for now, Virtual Reality Verse, and character-focused, and introspection, and lies uncovered, and other plot heavy things, and truths hidden, and why the Killing Games might exist, but who knows what the future may hold, it will probably stay that way, plot heavy, still deciding some pairings though they will be minor ones
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-05 13:00:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14619131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowMeowth/pseuds/ShadowMeowth
Summary: "It is whatfictionis."The 53rd Killing Game has ended. The Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles is destroyed. Only three survivors left.Or that is what they thought.When a voice suddenly gives them a cryptic message and they wake up in a deserted building, Shuichi Saihara, Maki Harukawa and Himiko Yumeno decide to follow the clue in order to find out the answers they seek about the outside world. Their journey will unveil a trail of lies on their wake. In the end, all leads to a single fact.Truth can turn to lies the same way lies can become the truth.





	1. Prelude to Future

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N:** Bleh. So I decided to give this thing a try by writing it. I know my lazy ass and I am well aware my inspiration is the ficklest of mistresses, but I had to get this story out of my mind. At first I thought of letting it out in form of a videogame but I am already working on RPG Maker in another and I am not that suicidal in mind-stability terms.
> 
> What to say. A bunch of theories and character thoughts and plot and probably everything will be a mess but I will try my best to sort it out. I am not an expert in Danganronpa but at least I can say I watched (more than once) all of the material and checked stuff. I hope I will not screw up too much with OOC-ness fueled by ignorance.
> 
> In any case, and speaking of ignorance, I am rather ignorant of Japanese stuff and details so I will stick mostly by V3's localization except for things that I do know. That means I will not use honorifics and Japanese-specific things. It is difficult enough for me to write this thing in English, since it is not my native language, to start digging in Japanese stuff I know nothing about. If my grammar or way of writing is weird, it is because of that. Also, I will spell Kokichi's surname as "Oma": I use both spellings the same way, but since in English "Oma" is basically pronounced as "Ouma" and it is mainly an aesthetic issue, I will stick to the game.
> 
> And... that is basically it for the introduction. Now, let us go right into the thing. Brace yourselves.

_Search for the island where hope and despair held the final confrontation. Search for the symbol that holds all answers, and give yours._

_When faced with the choice for our **future** , did we choose **hope** or **despair**?_

* * *

The light was blinding. For long moments that seemed to last an eternity, there was nothing but absolute white that clouded completely his consciousness and senses.

And then, suddenly, black. Difference being, his eyes were open.

The first sensations came: confusion, anxiety, fear. Something heavy was covering his head and eyes, and he could feel his body lying on a relatively soft surface. He tried moving his limbs, and even though at first his arms and legs were slow to react, he managed to relieve their numbness as he forced them to answer his command. He felt his blood flowing again, leaving a tingling on its trail through his body.

He tried to sit up cautiously. He lifted his hands to his head and touched whatever that was covering it and blocking his sight: it felt metallic and heavy. Slowly and wondering what the hell was happening, he took off that thing, that turned out to be some kind of helmet with a lot of wires. At last, his eyes began seeing more than black, and after a few seconds he managed to focus them and identify his surroundings.

He saw an austere, aseptic room, without windows and dimly illuminated by the light that came from several electronic devices and screens to which, he realized, that metal helmet was connected. He was lying on a hospital-like bed, and he soon realized that, in fact, he was only wearing a light-blue robe. It was then when the first coherent thoughts took shape in his mind.

_«Who am I?… Where am I?»_

He looked down at his hands, pale with long fingers, trying to remember. The light… yes, he could remember that well enough… and then, the smoking ruins of an academy…

An academy in which he had been locked up along other fifteen teenagers to kill each other for enjoyment and amusement of the outside world.

His heart skipped a beat. He nearly screamed, though he barely held it in his throat.

 _«Shuichi Saihara»_ , the name pierced his mind with the clarity of a ray of light. _«My name is Shuichi Saihara. And… I’m a survivor of the 53rd Killing Game.»_

But why was he in that room? Had someone captured him after the killing game was ruined by his actions and the academy destroyed?

Panic welled up within him. If Team Danganronpa’s agents locked him up again because of him rebelling against them, then… were they trying to prevent his escape with those devices? Did they intend to keep him isolated to force him to participate in another killing game in retaliation, or merely for him to not interfere in the next?

Shuichi practically jumped out of the bed when the thought crossed his mind, only to stumble and fall to the ground when his knees suddenly faltered. He made a great effort to get up, to run out of there as fast as possible. He staggered towards the door and tried to turn the knob, but to his horror it was locked from the outside.

_«No… no! I must get out of here!»_

Terrified, he frantically tried to force the doorknob without success. Shuichi ended up kicking the door in desperation, well aware that he lacked the physical strength to knock it down, but he could not bear the thought of being imprisoned by those who forced him to take part in that dreadful killing game.

“Let me out!”, he yelled, losing his composure at last, pounding on the door. “Get me out of here! I won’t be your prisoner! You can’t—”

And suddenly and against all odds, something hit the door from the outside with loads more strength that Shuichi could ever muster. He stepped back so hastily that he fell flat on his back as an involuntary cry escaped his mouth. He tried standing up and defend himself from whatever or whoever was on the other side, but his body was trembling too much for that.

Another hit… and another… and the door opened wide abruptly.

There were two young girls on the threshold, both dressed in the same blue robe Shuichi was wearing. One of them was short, with straight red hair and pinkish eyes; the other one was taller, and she had dark brown hair in two long pigtails and intense red eyes. It was obvious from her stance and expression that it was the latter who had knocked open the door.

For a few long moments, Shuichi stared at them in confusion. But then, as if there were light again in his mind, he recognized them.

 _«Maki Harukawa»_ , and his eyes drifted to the red-headed girl. _«Himiko Yumeno.»_

“Shuichi?”, the red-eyed girl asked. He blinked, his mouth still hanging open.

“… Maki! Himiko!”, Shuichi could hardly believe what he was seeing. “What are you doing here?!”

“The same as you, I guess”, Maki sarcastically replied, holding out her hand to help him get up. “You’ve done well screaming, though. If not, we might have missed out that you were in here.”

“I did that too”, Himiko said, dragging the words as Shuichi remembered she did, “’cause the room where I woke up in was closed as well. But then Maki freed me!”

Shuichi, who had had to lean on the threshold until his legs seemed able to hold his weight without faltering, looked up at Maki, who merely shrugged.

“I forced the door of my room open. It wasn’t the first time I’ve had to do something like that.”

It was not surprising… to an extent, though. Maki seemed to realize the irony of her statement, so she frowned. There was an awkward silence between the three teenagers, and Shuichi used that pause to put his thoughts in order.

Maki Harukawa, the Ultimate Assassin. Himiko Yumeno, the Ultimate Magician. And he himself, Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Detective.

Or so they believed. Their memories supported their claim, but if what the final Class Trial of the killing game revealed was true, then they were nothing but fiction. A lie.

However, even if their talents were a fabrication, it was still a fact that their brains were now possessed of the knowledge and skills since they were directly influenced by those memories. And in that case, Maki’s talent proved to be particularly useful.

“Where are we?”, Shuichi asked aloud. “The Academy was destroyed, wasn’t it? We tried to get out… and I can’t remember anything beyond that point.”

“Then you remember as much as us”, Maki said shaking her head. “I have no idea about what could’ve happened between the light and we waking up in here. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they captured and locked us up here for what we did.”

 _What we did._ Ruin the 53rd season of Danganronpa. Surely that would not have pleased the show runners.

“Nyeh…”, Himiko muttered, getting Shuichi and Maki’s attention. “Did you hear a girl’s voice when… the light happened?”

That made Shuichi stop and think back. A girl’s voice? Yes… he did vaguely remember hearing a female voice during that memory lapse, but not the exact words…

“Did you hear it too?”, Maki raised her eyebrows. “What about you, Shuichi?”

“Yeah, I heard it as well. But I’m afraid I don’t exactly remember what it said…”

Maki furrowed her nose and shook her head.

“Whatever. Now it’s not the time to think about that”, she looked at both her companions, extremely serious. “We have to get out of here. We don’t even know if we’re alone or not in this place, and the last thing we need is for Team Danganronpa's agents to realize we’ve woken up.”

Shuichi nodded nervously, as did Himiko. He still felt weak and confused, but he agreed with Maki that they should not stay there a second longer than necessary. There would be plenty of time to discuss all other things once they were far away from Team Danganronpa’s grasp.

“Stay close to me”, Maki said, walking down the hallway and drawing a knife from her robe’s folds, to her friends' shock.

“Nyeh!”, Himiko took a step back. “Where did you get that?!”

“Found it while I was searching a way out. Not what you’d expect from a dagger, but that’s the best thing we have. If they try to stop us, at least we'll have a weapon.”

Shuichi felt grateful that the Ultimate Assassin was one of the survivors of the killing game and that she was with them right then. He had had enough violence and blood for the rest of his life and those that were to come, but he would not protest if Maki were to cut some throats if their freedom depended on it.

The three friends went on as quickly and stealthily as they were able. Maki was leading them, holding the knife, checking each corner and motioning to Shuichi and Himiko once she was sure the way was clear. They expected to run into anyone at any time, probably some Team Danganronpa agent trying to lock them up again, but the place seemed deserted. It was austere, with no windows, hardly any furniture to be seen and no decorations. Shuichi feared it was some kind of bunker, a basement with no way out.

Fortunately, that was not the case. After an extremely tense while of going down stairs and almost tiptoeing through the corridors, they finally saw a double door at the end of a wider hallway. They hurried to it, Maki clutching the knife’s handle so hard that her knuckles turned white.

“It’s not locked”, Maki muttered after probing the doorknob, “but better safe than sorry. I’ll go first.”

Shuichi and Himiko nodded, and they waited with a lump in their throats and their hearts racing as Maki opened the door and peered out, making sure that no one was on the other side. After a few moments that felt too long, she went outside, knife in hand and ready to attack at the slightest sign of danger. But in the end, she poked her head inside again and motioned to them, letting them know that they could follow her. They did so without hesitation, eager to leave behind that place that felt like a prison.

Shuichi’s eyes narrowed when the setting sun dazzled them. His bare feet touched grass and loose dirt. It took several seconds for him to realize that they were free, and that he was actually _outside_. In the outside world.

When he turned around, he realized that the building from they had just escaped was rather plain, almost like a concrete block that looked completely abandoned. No one would have ever suspected that the three survivors of the 53rd season of Danganronpa were locked up in there. After so much time imprisoned and forced to watch their companions die one after another, tasting the air outside was greatly comforting. Shuichi took a deep breath, unable to keep himself from smiling. By his side, Himiko seemed to share the feeling judging by her expression. Even Maki allowed a short smile to show in her usually stoic face.

But the moment did not last long once they stopped to think on their current predicament. Three teenagers in the middle of nowhere, without anything to eat or drink, only wearing those hospital-like blue robes and not having a single clue of where they could be.

“Nyeh…”, Himiko broke the uncomfortable silence. “Now what should we do?”

Maki said nothing. Shuichi had the impression that both girls hoped that the Ultimate Detective would bring some light to the many questions that they had to face.

“Er…”, he scratched the back of his neck, not knowing what to say. “We should try finding out first where we are… but I have no idea where we might go, or what we should do…” 

“Even if we managed to get somewhere, we’d have serious trouble”, Maki did not seem to shy away from breaking down even more bad news. “We don’t have other clothing than _this_ , we don’t have any money. Not to mention that probably the whole world knows our faces.”

Those words fell like frigid water on their mood. _«I should’ve thought about it»_ , Shuichi briefly closed his eyes. _«If what Tsumugi said was true, then Danganronpa was worldwide broadcasted. How are we going to move around without anyone recognizing us?»_

Meanwhile, Himiko had walked away a bit from them, as if she were to explore their surroundings. Shuichi did not realized this until the Ultimate Magician suddenly pointed to the horizon.

“Nyeh… Look at that!”

Shuichi and Maki looked at where Himiko was pointing, and they found out that as the sun set and the sky darkened, the lights coming from a town could be seen in the distance. It did not seem to be too far away, but given their situation, it would have not mattered. It was the only place where they might find some well-needed answers.

Shuichi, Maki and Himiko looked at each other, somewhat more relieved than before. At least now they had a starting point where before they had nothing at all.

“Shall we go, then?”, Shuichi asked, to which his friends nodded at once. They could not wait to leave behind the building that had been their prison and everything related to Team Danganronpa. The farther away, the better.

And yet, once they were on the move, Shuichi could not help but think that they would be carrying Team Danganronpa with them for the rest of their lives. They stole and replaced their memories, gave them their current identities and if that was not enough they made sure that everyone in the world would recognize them as part of the 53rd Killing Game.

 _«What kind of future can we expect in this world?»_ , the young detective thought, looking up at the darkening sky as they walked towards the unknown. _«Of everything we were told, what is true and what is a lie?»_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** I wish Ao3 had a "prologue" option. Because this is basically a prologue and I have to list it as Ch.1 and that is going to mess up the whole index. I want my chapters in proper order, please and thank you.
> 
> I almost spelt "AoE" instead of "Ao3". MMORPGs are taking over my brain. 
> 
> Also I hate thinking of titles. I usually write the thing and then choose a major word or term from it and stick it as title. Took me a while to decide a title for the whole work.


	2. The Absolute Truth

“You sure there’s nothing else we can eat?”

“I’m an assassin, not a thief. You should’ve thankful I got all this without stabbing anyone in the back.”

Shuichi heard Himiko and Maki arguing a little further as he took off his robe and put on the clothes Maki had gotten for him. They were a bit loose for him, but it was all he had. He decided not to think much about the method used to get them or he would feel guilty for days.

When the three teenagers finally reached the town they saw after leaving the building where they had been kept up, they took hours to get there going on foot as they were, hungry, thirsty and with their bare, sore feet covered in cuts after walking on dirt, stones and dry twigs. They found a roadway, but even following it they chose to avoid the paved path just in case a car passed by them and the driver spotted three teenagers wearing hospital robes wandering at night.

Once they got to the town’s outskirts, Maki left Shuichi and Himiko resting in a place they deemed safe —an old, abandoned warehouse— and went to try getting some supplies. It would not be an easy task for free and at such a late hour, but the Ultimate Assassin found a group of teenagers who apparently had gone out partying. Easy prey for Maki, who as emerged from the very shadows swiftly knocked all them out and then took all their money —not much, but it would be enough to cover the basic needs—, food and water, and amongst them she chose three people whose physical build resembled hers and her friends’, and she stole their clothes as well.

 _«Way to return to the outside world»_ , Shuichi had thought when Maki came back with the stolen goods and explained how she got them. _«It was too much asking for discretion, I guess…»_

“Don’t look at me like that”, Maki told them at noticing Shuichi and Himiko’s stunned faces. “They were so drunk no one would be surprised they fainted once they find them. And about the clothes… well, I doubt I’m the only one around here who is willing to steal from someone who lost consciousness.”

It was not something to be proud, of course, but Shuichi was well aware that they could not afford being overly nice in their predicament. It was a matter of survival, something to which he had to get used to, much to his chagrin. _«That was the Class Trials’ core: our lives at the expense of others’.»_

Once he finished putting on his clothes, Shuichi gave a critical look at his new outfit. A white shirt, a black leather jacket with a hoodie and simple grey jeans. At least that hoodie would be useful to conceal his face while on the streets: he would have preferred his old hat, but after giving it a second thought, the whole world had seen him wearing that hat for a while. The hoodie would not draw that much attention towards him.

The girls had also taken aesthetic measures to divert the gaze of people: Maki let loose her hair and gave her red scrunchies to Himiko so she could use them to fashion hers in two small pigtails. That way, no one would automatically associate their looks with the killing game’s survivors. Their new clothes were plain and simple, and not school uniforms which would also help them to not being identified as “students”.

When he came back to his friends, Shuichi saw that Himiko resigned herself to the fact that the only meal they would have that night were some chips and chocolate bars. That would not do much to quell their hunger, but that was all they had. It would have to do.

“We’ll have something better tomorrow”, Shuichi promised Himiko, who was reluctantly chewing on a chocolate bar. “Now it’s late and all stores are closed, Himiko.”

“I know, but still…”, she growled in unison with her stomach. “Nyeh… Sleeping when you’re hungry is the absolute worst.”

Shuichi sighed. To be honest, he could not wait for dawn to come so he could silence his guts’ protests.

They ate what little they had in silence for a while, giving quick looks at their surroundings every now and then with a mix of curiosity and suspicion. They felt somewhat safer, but lowering their guard would mean becoming easy prey for Team Danganronpa.

“Did you find out anything about where we are?”, Shuichi asked Maki then. She frowned, leaning her back against the cartons they found and decided to use as makeshift mattresses.

“I saw some traffic signs reading ‘Koiban’. Doesn’t ring any bell to me. What about you?”

The name was completely unknown to him. Shuichi shook his head, as Himiko did. _«What lost corner of the country have they brought us to?»_

“Nyeh… I guess if tomorrow we find a map or something like that, we’ll place ourselves better.”

“Agreed”, Shuichi nodded to Himiko. “We just have to be patient. Everything will make more sense in the morning, I’d say.”

However, Maki did not seem that convinced.

“Well then, let’s assume we find out exactly where we are. And then what?”, the girl stared at them, extremely serious. “Any idea about our next step after that?”

Once again, silence. And once again, both girls turned their head to a flustered Shuichi, who looked down. _«Do they really believe that me being the Ultimate Detective means I hold all answers? I’m not even a_ true _detective…»_

Although the truth of that last statement was questionable. Shuichi might not have been a detective, not in the outside world, but now his brain and memories _were_ those of a detective. And so they would stay, since if the Flashback Lights truly modified memories permanently, he would have to get used to it.

Not that he minded being a detective, neither his “fabricated” personality after bearing witness of his old self’s audition tape for Danganronpa. But knowing that his whole past —family, friends and the like— had been stolen forever was not a pleasant thought, either.

 _Danganronpa characters can only live in the Danganronpa setting_ , Tsumugi Shirogane had claimed during the last Class Trial. Only a few hours into the outside world, Shuichi was starting to believe her words.

“… Shuichi?”, Himiko’s voice suddenly brought him back down to reality. “Are you alright?”

“Uh… Ah, yes. Excuse me, I was just thinking…”, in an effort to not worry his friends with his ominous trail of thought, Shuichi quickly searched for something different to talk about… and, against all odds, he found it. “… Do you remember the voice we heard when we saw the light?”

Even though it was a comment meant to ease the tense atmosphere, in truth it got Maki and Himiko’s interest. And, thinking about it, Shuichi felt intrigued as well. They had not gone into it until then because they were too focused on escaping.

“That female voice just before we woke up?”, Maki frowned. “I don’t exactly remember what she said. Something about an island where hope and despair faced each other, and then a choice of sorts.”

“Nyeh! Then she told us all the same! ‘Cause I remember that part, too”, Himiko said, and then she looked away. “I’d like to say I could use my magic to unravel this mystery, but… I think, after everything that’s happened, it’d make no sense…”

“You’re still the Ultimate Magi— I mean, Mage”, Shuichi tried to cheer her up; he understood well how his friend felt. “I don’t think it’ll be necessary to use your magic, though… If we put together all the pieces of the puzzle, we might remember what exactly said the voice.”

Himiko nodded, a bit more relieved. For her part, Maki tilted her head.

“I suspect that voice could be nothing more than a trick on Team Danganronpa’s part to lead us into some kind of trap.”

It was a valid concern, and Shuichi pondered it. However, something about it just did not make sense.

“It could be, but we heard that message _before_ waking up. And we were already kept up by Team Danganronpa… What would be the point of giving us a message when we were captured, one that might make us go in search of… _something?”_

“You’ve got a point”, Maki admitted, although she did not seem completely convinced. “The message said we should look for that island, right? And then we’d have to answer a question.”

“Something about hope and despair!”, Himiko chimed in. “But… nyeh, I don’t really get what that means. I mean, those were terms linked to Hope’s Peak Academy, weren’t they? And… that’s all fiction. Tsumugi said it was all a lie, didn’t she?”

Shuichi put a hand to his forehead, trying to think clearly. Certainly, ‘hope’ and ‘despair’ were undoubtedly related to Hope’s Peak Academy’s story and Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Despair: the main core of Danganronpa itself. They still had fabricated memories about both of them. The killing games were based on the events that confronted hope and despair.

Going by that logic, the message would merely be another of Team Danganronpa’s twisted tricks. But what would be its purpose? It did not make sense to him that they were the ones who sent them a message related to those fictional facts after bothering to reveal them that they were not real. There had to be something else… but Shuichi could not figure out what it was.

“Kokichi wasn’t the only one of us who could lie”, the detective reasoned, and he felt a pang of remorse when he remembered the most enigmatic of their companions; he had not stopped to think about it, but after the reveals of the last Class Trial, having treated him the way they did because of his lies was hypocritical at worst. “Tsumugi could’ve lied too. The only proof of that we have is her word.”

“You think it was all a farce?”, Maki narrowed her eyes. “Then it’d be quite an elaborate one. The audience, our audition tapes, the plot incoherencies, our capture… Tsumugi didn’t seem to be lying. She sounded pretty damn sure of what she was spouting.”

“As sure as we were that we were students of Hope’s Peak Academy, too”, Shuichi replied. “If Team Danganronpa can really tamper with memories, then there’s the possibility that Tsumugi honestly believed in what she was saying without being necessarily the truth. Perhaps she wasn’t even aware herself.”

“Nyeh?! Don’t tell me you’re standing up for her!”, Himiko protested. “She was the mastermind! She killed Rantaro and framed Kaede for it! And it’s because of her all our friends are dead now!”

Shuichi took a deep breath. Himiko’s words hurt, because they were the brutal, harsh, awful truth: that the three of them were the only survivors of the 53rd Killing Game. Three out of sixteen. ‘Depressing’ would not even begin to describe it. It was more like ‘devastating’.

But that was why he could not allow himself to dwell too much on it. They had a much more urging mystery in their hands.

“I’m not standing up for Tsumugi”, he replied as calmly as he could. “It’s true that she knew what was going on… but we too believed almost with blind faith in facts that weren’t true. Before stating something as the absolute truth, you have to make sure that it _is_.”

“You’ll always be playing devil’s advocate, won’t you?”, Maki sighed, though she did not seem as cold as her words sounded. “Well, I suppose that if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be yourself. You’re Kaito’s sidekick, after all.”

There was sadness and melancholy in her red eyes. Shuichi missed dearly Kaito Momota’s unwavering optimism —and particularly in that moment— but of course who most mourned his loss was Maki, who had barely confessed her feelings to him when Monokuma —or rather, his terminal illness— took his life.

“Nyeh…”, Himiko rubbed her eyes, exhausted. “All these deep things are making me sleepy…”

 _«Can’t blame her»_ , Shuichi thought, who was also feeling his eyes and body heavy. After all that tension, after having walked barefoot to that town and faced with those enigmas, the detective was aware that he was not at his best to resolve any mystery.

“It’d be better if we slept. Tomorrow will be another day, and we’ll have our minds fresh”, Maki decided, her voice not giving room for protest. “Then we’ll talk about what we’re gonna do. Not before.”

“But, Maki…”, Shuichi replied, a bit shyly. “Are you sure it’s a good idea? Just like that? Team Danganronpa’s agents could find us while we’re asleep…”

She crossed her arms.

“I’ve got a good hearing even when I’m asleep. If someone gets too close, I’ll wake up”, she said, and after a brief pause she reluctantly admitted, “… I need the rest too.”

Understandable. She might be the Ultimate Assassin, but Maki was not made of iron after all. All three of them were exhausted, both in body and in mind. They needed sleep. Or dozing off, whatever. The cartons they found would serve as beds, and their discarded robes as blankets, but even having that, Shuichi did not hope for the much needed deep rest.

Even so, like everything they had, it was much more than they would have dared to hope.

“Alright”, he nodded, laying down on his cartons and covering himself with the robe; by his side, Himiko had done the same thing earlier as he and Maki were still talking, and she was already softly snoring. “We’ll continue this talk in the morning. Good night, Maki.”

“Night.”

With only the nightly noises and occasional distant voices as background sounds, Shuichi fell asleep faster than he expected, his exhaustion doing the work. But even so, his mind did not stop going around the riddles that they discussed that night.

Truths and lies. Reality and fiction. What was what? The question was becoming increasingly frustrating.

… Yet, at the same time, it all made Shuichi want to get to the bottom of the mystery, to unravel all threads. He was a detective, and that was his way of living. At least, from the moment he chose to be part of Danganronpa.

That night, his dreams were haunted by awful truths and kind lies. And amongst the web of contradictions, a very familiar laugh could be heard, a laugh he knew he would never hear again.

Death was one of those absolute truths that one would prefer not to believe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** I know the chapters might be a bit short for now, but consider them an introduction of sorts. Until more players get on the board, there is not much advancing in the actual plot. To be honest, all that we need is one character to make his entrance to stuff actually happening. That is why there is not much to be said, for now. Do not worry, currently we are merely going into what might Shuichi, Maki and Himiko's escape could have been.
> 
> The town's name is all made up. I have reasons for it, two in particular: **1)** for plot reasons, **2)** I know nothing of Japanese geography. Welp.
> 
> Thanks for reading. I will gladly reply to your comments and answer your questions, if you have any and they are not spoiler-ish. :)


	3. Skeleton of a Lie

Koiban was a peaceful town, not even a small city, which did not have many visitors, being more of a passing city than a tourist destination. People did not dwell into anything that did not concern them, and the questions they asked were limited to the required information without touching the social, family and professional issues of others.

During the days they spent there, Shuichi observed and studied those details and his detective training provided him with a few logical deductions.

Why did Team Danganronpa lock them up that close of the town?, because all people there were discreet and no one would ask uncomfortable questions about the simple concrete building lost in the middle of the countryside. Why was their prison close to a town despite the risk it involved?, because, in case of emergency, their agents might need tools or medical support. And, because in case of they escaped, the town would be the first place to look in, since it was the logical place they would go.

Shuichi, Maki and Himiko had been fully aware of it all that time, and consequently they never let their guard down. They never walked together on the street, not losing sight of each other but avoiding being close. Once they found a cheap hostel where they could sleep, they requested separate rooms and they did not register at the same time, instead waiting for some time to pass so nobody thought they traveled together. Whenever they stopped in a fast food restaurant, they sat at different tables all alone. They had been necessary precautionary measures, so the only contact they had with each other practically was only at night, when they met in one of their rooms to discuss everything that happened during the day.

Even when they bought the bus tickets that would take them to their next destination, they chose seats away from each other. Shuichi hoped to lower his stressful guard for a bit once they were far away from that town, but meanwhile the time he absentmindedly spent looking through his seat’s window he pondered once and again the doubts and questions that had risen from those they believed they solved. _«At least we think we’ve solved them. We can’t take anything from granted yet, and that’s the most frustrating of all.»_

But well, he could say he was sure they managed to decipher part of one of the greatest enigmas they were faced with upon their awakening. _«And here we are»_ , he thought, looking around discreetly; a few seats away from him, Himiko was sleeping with her head in the shoulder of the uncomfortable passenger next to her, and a bit further in the back, Maki kept watching with hawk eyes every single movement of everyone in the bus. _«Going to another city we don’t know anything about, and from there… then we’ll truly enter a real mystery.»_

The detective closed his eyes. The trip would last quite several hours, so he would have plenty of time to mentally review everything that happened during those last days, and the reason why they ended up getting on that bus.

* * *

 “Alright…”, Shuichi muttered as he wrote down in pencil a few words in a small notebook he had bought that morning; it was the night of the third day since their escape, and Maki and Himiko had met with him in his humble hostel room. “So, if we’re not wrong here, the voice we heard said this…”, he cleared his throat before reading what he wrote. “Search for the island where hope and despair held the final confrontation. Search for the symbol that holds all answers, and give yours. When faced with the choice of our future, did we choose hope or despair?”

“Nyeh! Yeah, that’s what it said!”, an enthusiastic Himiko exclaimed. Maki nodded in satisfaction, yet without losing her characteristic seriousness.

“Took us a little longer than expected, but at last we’ve got it”, the assassin said, and she crossed her arms. “We have the complete message, then. Now we have to find out what island it’s referring to.”

“Well…”, Shuichi sighed, trying to calm down his racing thoughts. “As we’ve already discussed, this message seems to be related to Hope’s Peak Academy’s history. I know our memories about it are all false, but we _did_ find out some things about it during the killing game.”

“What does its history matter if Hope’s Peak is fictional?”, Maki argued. “Everything we found out is nothing more than a tale written by a third party.”

“Even so, there’s a trace of truth in every lie”, Shuichi reasoned; that was a lesson he learned without realizing due to the enigmatic Kokichi Oma. “Think about it, Maki. Everything society creates comes from pre-existing models. You may modify and customize them, add or take from them, but the foundation remains. It’s like… try to imagine it like the skeleton of a lie, or of fiction in this case.”

“Or like my magic”, Himiko said. “My mentor taught me all basic techniques every mage must know, but over the years and through my experience and practice they evolved into something different. Yet the core was the same!”

Maki frowned as she rested her elbow on the pillow of Shuichi’s simple bed.

“Right, I think I get what you mean”, she said. “There has to be a starting point in Hope’s Peak history that could’ve been real. You think this island really exists then?”

“It could be some sort of allegory or metaphor, there’s no denying it”, Shuichi mused; solving cryptograms was not his field as a detective, but neither had been homicide and he ended up being the major player in solving all of the 53rd Killing Game’s murders. “But if I remember correctly, there was an island mentioned in Hope’s Peak Academy’s history. I think Tsumugi mentioned it too, didn’t she?”

“Yes, right when she began cosplaying”, Himiko growled. “Nyeh… What was its name? Jamo— Jammer… uh, Jabo-something?”

“Jabberwock Island!”, Maki suddenly said. “It was where the second killing game took place!”

 _«Of course!»_ , Shuichi immediately recalled that book that gathered the complete history of Hope’s Peak Academy which they found amidst the final investigation, in the Ultimate Supreme Leader Research Lab. _«Everything makes sense now… That’s where the surviving students of both killing games confronted Junko Enoshima and defeated her for good.»_

Though there was a detail about that particular killing game that he could not remember and he had the feeling that it was of utmost relevance…

“That’s right, Maki!”, he said pushing that feeling aside for the moment. “The Future Foundation and the Remnants of Despair defeated Junko Enoshima in the second killing game on Jabberwock Island. This is how it was written in Hope’s Peak complete history.”

“Nyeh! Then, that island exists for real or not?!”, Himiko was puzzled.

“I guess we’ll have to find that out, but at least the message seems to corroborate the theory. Perhaps the island isn’t even called like that, but if the outside world is as obsessed with Danganronpa as we were told, maybe we’ll get some answers by pulling that thread.”

Himiko nodded. However, Maki frowned as if she had remembered something important.

“Wait a minute. Didn’t the second killing game take place in a virtual simulation?”

That made Shuichi’s brain, which was thinking at full speed, stop short. _«Virtual simulation?»_ He did not understand exactly why those words affected him that much, since he could easily made a reasoning just by recalling what he knew about Hope’s Peak’s history, but…

There was something in that concept that seemed to reach out to him. Yet he did not know what it was, what that feeling was, and it was extremely frustrating.

“Yes… As the story goes, the Future Foundation put the Remnants of Despair in a virtual simulation to free them from Junko Enoshima’s influence, but a Junko AI had been previously uploaded into the program and that was what caused the killing game”, Shuichi muttered, and shook his head. “But it doesn’t matter, because the facility where the Remnants were hidden was the real Jabberwock Island… I mean, outside the simulation. According to the book, they remained there after taking the blame for the final killing game that almost decimated the Future Foundation when their director intended for one of their members to force hope into the world.”

“I see. Well, if that’s the case, I guess that island could exist, or another one that inspired Jabberwock’s creation”, Maki sighed. “I feel like we’re chasing the impossible, but I trust your intuition is as sharp as ever, Shuichi.”

 _«I wish my intuition was as sharp as you think»_ , he bitterly thought. _«I might be the Ultimate Detective, but I’ve always had some help. If it were up to me to trust in my abilities, then I wouldn’t trust myself at all.»_

“Nyeh… If we’ve gotta look for that island, we could ask in a travel agency”, Himiko then suggested. “If Danganronpa’s so popular and the island does exist, perhaps it’s a place like some sort of amusement park!”

“Not a bad idea”, Maki agreed. Shuichi did too, a bit surprised by Himiko’s wise suggestion. The Ultimate Magician was more prone to listen than to speak, but comments like those reminded her friends why she was one of the only three survivors.

Once they decided to follow that course in their search from the next day on, Maki and Himiko said goodnight to him and returned to their respective rooms. Mentally exhausted, Shuichi lay on the bed and turned the table lamp’s light in an attempt to sleep and feel well-rested for what awaited them the following morning.

But that insistent feeling of missing something important kept nagging him. And it seemed to be connected to Maki’s note on the second killing game of Hope’s Peak Academy’s history.

_«It was a virtual simulation…»_

* * *

“Oh yes, Jabberwock Island”, the agent of the travel agency they went to the next day said with a smile. “I see you’re proud fans of Danganronpa, right?”

The three friends made a tremendous effort to smile back and nod. It was like swallowing acid that made their blood boil with rage and pain, but doing anything but that would achieve nothing but drawing suspicion.

Besides, the travel agency’s agent had recognized the name, which meant it was not an unknown term for her. And if even in a town that distant from big cities’ dynamics the travel agency was familiar with Jabberwock Island, then that meant that a lot of people asked about it.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you”, the woman went on, and Shuichi feared the worst of answers, “but you won’t find any agency for traveling there. I know that’d be quite the experience, visiting the island in which the second killing game of Danganronpa was based, but it’s completely impossible.”

Well, it was not exactly the answer Shuichi was expecting. In fact, judging from her words, the island did exist, but… it could not be visited?

“And why’s that?”, Maki asked, trying to sound more intrigued than irritated. “How’s that with Danganronpa being this popular there’s no organized trips to one of its main sources of inspiration?”

“Trust me, if it were possible, Team Danganronpa would’ve built a theme park there a long time ago”, the agent explained, “but like I tell you kids, that’s impossible because there’s no safe way to get to that island.”

Shuichi, Himiko and Maki shared a quick look. What did that mean?

“Nyeh? No safe way to get there? With how advanced ships and planes are these days?”

“With that you get an idea of how dangerous it is. All those who have tried had to return without success or die in the attempt”, the agent gave them a smile of pity that, Shuichi realized, was because she could not offer three supposed Danganronpa teenager fans that they wanted; the mere thought filled his guts with indignation and anger. “For some reason, the island is surrounded by incredibly strong storms that apparently form in a matter of minutes. Any ship or aircraft that tries to cross them ends at the bottom of the sea, no exception. That’s why, even if it’s disappointing indeed, everyone gave up trying a long time ago.”

That picked up Shuichi’s interest. So the island existed, but it was impossible to get there. _«Yet in Hope’s Peak’s history there wasn’t any mention to such storms around Jabberwock Island»_ , the detective recalled. _«What’s more, I think I remember reading that Future Foundation members tried to go there and kill the Remnants, and then the latter crossed the sea to help Class 78’s survivors. I wonder if omitting any mention of the storms was some sort of writing license… or if there’s anything else that we still don’t get.»_

Because, if the message said they had to look for Jabberwock Island, that had to mean there had to be a way to reach it. It was the logical conclusion, unless it was truly a false clue.

“I’m sincerely sorry”, the agent said then. “I always have to say this to excited teens like you, and I honestly think it’d be wonderful to have a theme park in the island where the second killing game took place. We wouldn’t have Danganronpa as it is now without that iconic moment, would we? No matter how last season ended… quite the disappointment, right?”

Swift as a lightning bolt, Maki put her hand to her blue jacket’s pocket, where she kept a knife —not the same one she took from the building where they had been kept up, but one she stole from the hostel’s kitchen that was definitely sharper and more lethal— in case the travel agency’s agent looked at them more closely and realized the three survivors who ruined Danganronpa’s 53rd season were standing before her. However, either their new clothes were a better diversion than they expected, or the woman was not truly paying attention to them. _«Or maybe»_ , Shuichi thought, _«there are people who try emulate our looks. Just like Tsumugi cosplayed fictional characters, there may be others like her in the outside world who do the same about us.»_ The simple thought felt too overwhelming. Both he and his friends were real people, flesh-and-blood people, and yet for the whole world they were merely… _characters._

Perhaps it had been wrong to think the outside world would immediately recognize them once they put their feet on the streets. Sometimes, the most obvious was what first went unnoticed. There was the possibility that the outside world did not even contemplate the thought that Danganronpa contestants, once they became characters, would even escape their ordeal and return to reality.

_Danganronpa characters can only exist in the Danganronpa setting._

Tsumugi Shirogane’s words echoed once again in his mind like a lapidary sentence.

Even so, Shuichi was not willing to give up, and it was obvious that Maki and Himiko did not either. In a masterful display of their ability to pretend, the three friends diverted the conversation in order to know exactly where Jabberwock Island was located. That was how they learned that Koiban was more or less in the center of the country, and the island in question was south the coast of Japan. The map they consulted was full of cities and reference points that none of them was able to recognize, something that Shuichi guessed it could be related to the memory loss Team Danganronpa inflicted to them, but despite that, something just did not make sense.

 _«Has the outside world always been like this?»_ , the detective asked himself; he did not know what to think anymore. _«I said myself everything is based on a pre-existing model. But it’s as if the model I remember has been altered in a way I can barely recognize it…»_

* * *

 That was how all three of them ended up getting on that bus, thought it had taken them a few more days after that visit to the travel agency to get the money they needed. Himiko turned out to be quite useful in that particular point, since as the Ultimate Magician she only had to find a strategic point in a park or a crowded street and perform magic tricks that, despite being extremely simple for her, they were quite complicated for normal people and even the average magician. Maki managed to get to work in the hostel’s kitchen for the time they stayed there with being able to pay the fee and the trip as justification, and she was accepted because of her seriousness, efficiency and masterful use of the knife. This way, Shuichi could spend the long hours of the day searching the Internet in the free computers the hostel offered its residents and take notes.

They decided to travel south, to some coastal city as close as possible to where they knew the real Jabberwock Island was located. From there, the idea was to find someone who might take them there, or rent a boat to go there themselves. If it was true that it was so dangerous to get close to the island, then there was possible that no one wanted to make the trip, so Shuichi took the chance to write down notes on the basics to how to pilot a small boat.

Finally, after a week and a half, and having collected the money and supplies they deemed necessary, Shuichi, Himiko and Maki bought the bus tickets that would take them to Suinaku —another city they had never heard before of, but apparently was rather popular as a tourist destination— in order to, once they got there, travel to Jabberwock Island, where, according to Danganronpa’s story, the Future Foundation and the Remnants of Despair joined forces against Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Despair.

As night fell and the bus continued its quiet journey across the country to the south, Shuichi felt as if they were walking into a path of no return into the heart of the truth. It should have been a nice thought, but it had been a while since the detective learned that the truth did not have to be necessarily so. The whole world was fueled by lies that made people live peacefully and in harmony.

 _«You were right, after all»_ , Shuichi thought, well aware that the person to whom his words were meant could not hear him anymore. Yet at this point, he did not care: it could just be a possibility, a lie, but somehow it was comforting to have that brief, unanswered conversation when he was doubting everything around him.

Perhaps it was nonsense speaking to the dead.

Perhaps it was not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Welp. Apparently I am on a writing streak. Not that I am complaining, considering my inspiration and motivation to write is fickle as hell. It might me simply that I want to get to the good stuff and we have to go through this sort of introduction.
> 
> Even so, I think I am leaving a bit of plot heavy stuff already. Huehuehue.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and I shall be most glad to read your comments and answer your questions, if you have any. And of course, if you have any criticism, do not hesitate to tell me so. I always aim to improve. :)


	4. To Reject That World

After spending that much time locked up in the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles with the only company of merely fifteen —a number that would progressively dwindle— teenagers and six robot bears —five of them rather annoying and a particularly murderous one— Shuichi found the city of Suinaku’s bustle quite overwhelming.

There were people everywhere. People going from here to there, in constant movement. Conversations impossible to decipher mixed up with the noise of vehicles. It was absolute chaos, and that, ironically, was what a big city dweller would call ‘order’ in their daily life.

_«I don’t know if I lived in a city like this one before»_ , he thought, _«but I’ve definitely lost the habit.»_

And undoubtedly Maki and Himiko shared the feeling, each in their own way. It was not that easy to walk separately without losing sight of each other in such a crowd, so they decided to stay together. And, by the way Himiko clung to his arm and Maki did not let go of the handle of the knife she hid in her jacket any single moment, yes, they were not feeling comfortable either.

The first thing the three friends did once they got off the bus the night of their arrival, three days ago, was looking for some cheap hostel close to the port. The rooms there had to be shared, but since they were far away from the place where they had been held captive they did not mind as much, and so Shuichi, Maki and Himiko shared a room with two bunk beds; one of those beds was unoccupied, but it was better that way. They had that little space to themselves, where they could discuss their plans without worrying about who might be listening.

They spent the rest of the night at the hostel, and the next day began their round of questions around the port, trying to find someone who would take them to the shores of the dreaded, yet fabled, Jabberwock Island.

And they soon saw for themselves that, just as Koiban’s travel agency’s agent told them, no one wanted to risk their lives against the brutal storms surrounding the island only to please three whimsical teens they had not even met before.

In the end, they had to accept that fact, and the second option they faced was not simple either: renting —or rather, _stealing—_ a boat and sail to the island themselves.

Maki had been willing to steal one at night, but Shuichi preferred the safest and, to an extent, the most honest choice. _«Even if we’re not going to give it back to its owner, either because we get to the island or because we end up sinking, the right thing to do is to at least pay for the damage… »_

The immediate issue they found was that they did not have enough money to rent a boat, nor did they know how to man one beyond the few notes Shuichi wrote down in his notebook before coming to the city. That is why they once again left to Himiko the task of raising funds —something she was quite good at given her talent, and in a crowded city like Suinaku it proved even more fruitful since her tricks attracted more people willing to pay for the street performance— while Shuichi and Maki searched in the Internet how to get running a boat like those that were available for renting in the port.

“You do know what no matter how much we memorize all this stuff, there won’t be much we can do if we get caught up in one of those storms they talk about, do you?”, Maki told Shuichi during one of those days of web-searching with a glare that was basically shouting it was a suicidal plan. But even knowing it was so, it did not intimidate him as much as it might have done in the past. _«I was willing to die to end Danganronpa. I made up my mind, I was ready to die, and that’s why the possibility doesn’t scare me anymore… relatively speaking, of course.»_

“I’m well aware of it. But we’re alone in this, Maki, and if we want to get somewhere in order to find out the truth behind that message, then it’s our only option. We were lucky once… no choice now but to trust our luck again.”

Maki frowned, but she nodded and said nothing more. That conversation gave Shuichi something to think about that night while trying to sleep as he futilely made an effort to ignore the snoring that came from the top bunk, where Himiko was fast asleep.

_«Actually, after everything that’s happened to us, it’s almost like we’re Ultimate Lucky Students instead of being the Ultimates we really are… »_

* * *

Renting the boat was not as difficult as they expected once they had collected all the money they needed. They feared that they might be asked for more documentation that the one at their disposal, since they were teenagers, but a photocopy of their I.D.’s was enough. Something they had solved almost since the morning after their escape, because amongst the goods Maki stole from that group of youngsters back in Koiban there were three I.D.’s whose photos they replaced by others they took in a photo booth; the rest was solved by a few computer-editing tricks. They had been using those false identities all that time, to register in hostels and to buy the bus tickets, and since their original owners were of age they had not been questioned in any way.

_«I wonder what our real age is»_ , Shuichi thought while Maki closed the deal with the boat’s owner. _«In my memories, I’m seventeen or so, but trusting them knowing they’re false would be extremely naive of me.»_

They told the owner that they only wanted the boat to go to a port city on a nearby island that was hosting a festival, because they knew that if they revealed what their true destination was he would not rent it to them. He was not going to gamble his property and the lives of three teenagers for crossing the storms surrounding Jabberwock Island, obviously.

So, once again, they had to lie. A kind lie, Kokichi Oma would have called it. But it was more evident each time that it was how the world worked. And Shuichi felt each time more like a fool because he _believed_. He wondered what Kaito Momota, optimism incarnate, would have to say if he knew.

To their relief, it turned out that the ship had a basic autopilot. It required some manual control depending of the maneuvering and contingencies, but at least they would not have to worry too much about getting lost. The boat would follow the programmed course in the nautical chart, and fortunately for them they had taken the trouble to locate Jabberwock Island beforehand in the map.

“Nyeh… Are you sure you know how to get this thing going?”, Himiko asked insecurely while Shuichi and Maki, who were sitting in the cockpit, studied the manuals and nautical charts carefully.

“More or less”, Shuichi admitted, much to his chagrin. “Hopefully it’ll be enough just setting the course… I wouldn’t want to drive this manually if we get sidetracked, because I have no idea about moving around at open sea.”

“That’ll be the least of our worries if we end up at the bottom of the sea”, Maki replied, not even trying to lighten up the mood, and she started the boat’s engine. “Anyway, let’s get going. We’re gonna have to pass this test if we really want to say we’ve survived the 53rd Killing Game.”

* * *

The weather was nice. Clouds could be seen in the horizon, but they did not seem to bring any kind of storm, and the sea was rather calm. Even so, Shuichi would not stop looking nervously at the sky, forcing himself to remember that those dreaded storms were exactly renowned for forming in a matter of minutes.

“We should have the island on sight in a few hours”, Maki observed the day after their departure, as the trip lasted a couple of days approximately according to the programmed course. “I don’t know how far away from it the storms are supposed to appear, but I’ve got the feeling that we should’ve run into one by now.”

“You’re right, but…”, Shuichi did not want to get too hopeful, even though he was well aware his friend’s comment was anything but optimistic. “We’re not close enough to see the island yet, and we still have no reason to lower our guard.”

“That’s what I mean. It’d be quite strange if, after all the attempts made to reach the island that ended in failure with far more advance means than a simple boat like this, we end up being the first people who set foot on it.”

“That’d be quite the convenient coincidence for us indeed…”, Shuichi was about to finish the line when an idea suddenly took shape in his mind. An idea that, had it not been because he learned a while ago not to disregard possibilities that seemed too crazy to even _be_ , he would have never stopped to consider. _«Could something like that even be possible?»_ , he thought, his golden eyes wide open. “Unless…”

There was silence, only broken by the soft crashing of the waves against the boat’s hull. The detective’s brain did not dare continue and tempt fate.

“Unless what?”, Maki inquired staring at him, still waiting for the unfinished answer. He shook his head and forced himself to focus on the horizon again.

“I’ll tell you later… if we truly get to the island alive.”

_«Because, otherwise, my theory would be wrong to start with.»_

* * *

Hours later, as the sun set and Shuichi, who could not even bear with his own nervousness and had went up on deck to take a breath of fresh air and check out the clouds that he felt almost staring at him, he heard the long-awaited shout.

“Nyeh! Land in sight!”

Himiko, who tended to be overwhelmed by nausea whenever she was too nervous or excited, had spent most of the time on deck in case her stomach betrayed her, which indeed happened more than once during the trip. She had been their lookout in a sense.

Shuichi ran to the bow, not quite believing it. Himiko was there, her face a bit pale and sweaty —it was evident that excitement had just emptied her guts to the sea— and pointing to the horizon.

There, against the light of the setting sun, was the silhouette of an island that grew larger and larger the closer they got to it.

And there was not a single suspicious cloud in the sky.

“Is it… is it truly Jabberwock Island?”, he muttered, completely dumbfounded. “Have we really gotten this far without getting caught in any of those storms?”

“Well… it should be Jabberwock Island, right? Or have we deviated from the course?”

“I checked just before leaving the cockpit, so… no, we’ve not. But still… everyone said it was impossible to get even close to the island…”

Himiko scratched the back of her neck. She did not understand it either, that was obvious.

“I don’t know… Maybe we’re just lucky? Nyeeeh… it’s the only think I can think of.”

_«Crossing a sea that to date no one has been able to cross without bumping into one of those storms is_ too _much luck»,_ Shuichi was almost sure it could not be a coincidence. But what would it be, if not so? Because his theory seemed too crazy as well.

And yet, apparently it made more sense than he had thought when he first considered it.

“Let’s not claim victory yet…”, he said, however. “It’s still possible that a storm forms right now. First we have to get to shore alive, and then… then we’ll see if we were lucky or not.”

“Nyeh… you’re right”, Himiko admitted, and she excitedly jumped all of a sudden. “I’m gonna use all of my stored mana to hold any storm that might bar our way to get to that island!”

Despite himself, Shuichi smiled. It was good to know that the Ultimate Magician had not lost her faith in her ‘magic’, after all that they went through.

When he went back to the cockpit to check everything was going according to the plan, he saw Maki intensely focused on the nautical chart that showed their course, shooting occasional furtive glances at the island’s profile.

“Just half an hour until we’re there”, she informed once she noticed Shuichi’s presence. “If things keep up like this, anyway. I find it hard to believe we’ve come so far as to simply sight it, and even harder that we’re truly going to reach it.”

“If I have to be honest, then there’s two of us”, Shuichi sank down on his seat, too nervous for his legs to stand without wobbling. From there, he studied the island’s form as they got closer to it in silence, and then he said, “Maki, have you noticed that kind of tower at its center?”

“Yeah. It looks kind of ruined, but it’s an artificial structure alright. Reminds me of a giant radio tower of sorts. What of it?”

“Well, if it’s so…”, the detective frowned. “It would imply this island isn’t _as_ unreachable as people say it is. Or it wasn’t in the past, at the very least.”

Maki stared at him, taking in what his words entailed.

“You mean someone else was able to make their way across the storms and get to the island. But who could do something like that? Team Danganronpa? They’re the ones most interested in the place where they based the second killing game.”

Shuichi remained silent for a few moments. _«No… Now that we’re closer, I can see the structure looks quite in a bad shape. No one’s been here in a long time, that’s for sure.»_

“I don’t want to rule out the possibility, but… I don’t think it’s the case”, he replied cautiously. “I’m almost sure no one has set foot on the island in a while, to the point either no one knows someone made it, or people has just forgotten over the years.”

“It’s possible”, Maki’s red eyes were fixated on that mysterious tower. “Maybe that’s the very thing we have to investigate. It’s what stands out the most at a first glance. Even so, if it’s something that happened as long ago as you’re saying, why make us come here, and why hasn’t anyone else gotten here before us?”

“I can’t answer that, but there’s something I’m sure about now”, Shuichi looked up at the island, not doubting his conclusions. “That’s what whoever sent us the message when we woke up wanted us to find out. It had to be _us_. And… this is just a theory, but… perhaps for that very reason, and not just because we’re lucky, we were able to cross the sea.”

_«It won’t be long until we verify it, or die trying.»_

* * *

The moon dimly illuminated the sea when, at last, the boat’s autopilot made it dock at an old pier in the shores of Jabberwock Island. When, miraculously and against all odds, Shuichi, Maki and Himiko set foot on land again.

They had reached their destination. They were alive.

“Your theory might be true after all, Shuichi”, Maki noted after a silence in which the three friends processed the fact that they had actually survived the dreaded trip. “Look at this pier. It’s evident it was built a long time ago, but _someone_ certainly did so.”

“Nyeh! Do you think that someone is the same one who sent us the message?”, Himiko asked.

“Don’t think so. A structure like this pier or the tower wouldn’t end up in ruins if it hadn’t been at least decades since they were built, and I think I’m falling short here. Whoever built this, they’re probably dead by now.”

Shuichi took a few steps forward, looking around. Yes, Maki’s deduction was probably correct. But even so… _«Although it’s dark and I can’t make out all details, these structures… yeah, they’re in ruins, but it’s as if the techniques used to build them were much more advanced than those that exist nowadays.»_ However, he chose to keep that observation to himself, for the time being. He did not want to confuse his friends more than they already were.

“That doesn’t mean this hypothetical person couldn’t have left some sort of legacy for whoever came after”, he noted. “And if we got the message telling us to go to an island no one has been able to reach, then that means someone wants, or wanted, us to be able to do it. _Us_ , and nobody else.”

“By summoning storms that would keep others away but not us?”, Himiko was amazed. “Nyeh… Could it have been some great mage the one who came and foresaw our coming?”

“…”, for once, Maki seemed to seriously consider Himiko’s words. “I refuse to believe in magic, but setting up storms to conceal the island on purpose sounds… too surreal.”

“It’s true, it truly sounds crazy, but…”, to Shuichi’s memory came back some words he heard during the investigation of the third Class Trial.

_Complicated plans have a better chance of working out in the end, wouldn’t you say?_

He did not know whether to feel impressed or irritated. Agreeing with _him_ was kind of an internal struggle against his own pride, and it did not help at all that he could almost hear his signature chuckle in his ear.

“I guess we won’t know until we figure out the next part of the message”, he said, trying to get those memories out of his mind. “I suggest we go to that tower. It looks like the most obvious landmark, and if we’re truly the only ones who could come here, then hiding it wouldn’t make any sense.”

Maki and Himiko agreed. It was dark, but the three of them were too intrigued and excite to let any more time pass before finding out the truth behind the cryptic message that had brought them through the impossible.

As they walked into Jabberwock Island, Shuichi felt again as if they were heading into a path of no return. A path that would take them farther and farther away from the outside world, and it might not allow them to go back.

Yet, during the last days, Shuichi had been keenly aware of how alien the outside world felt now. The people, the customs, the chaos… how _shallow_ everything was. How meaningless it came across. After suffering that much during the 53 rd Killing Game at the hands of that same people who relieved their boredom by watching others die and kill, he was no longer sure about wanting to stay in it.

_«It was me who first claimed to reject that world, after all. I wonder if the people of the outside world wanted us to survive… only to show us that we really have no place amongst them anymore.»_

A kind lie masking an awful truth.

That familiar chuckle echoed again in Shuichi’s head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** I really do hope this chapter does not seem rushed. I simply did not want to stall the story by dwelling too much in stuff that is not heavily plot-related for the sake of filling it up. Especially since it is from this chapter onwards that we are going to enter the realm of true plot. And I honestly want to get working into that.
> 
> At the same time, I tried to sprinkle this with more mysteries to be answered in the coming future so it is not just a bunch of fragments of a trip mashed together.
> 
> And also hinting at my favorite character ever of the whole Danganronpa. I love doing that too. Speaking of dear characters, there is one that is soon making the big appearance. Brace yourselves.
> 
> As always, thanks a lot for reading. If you have any question or critique, I shall be most glad to answer. :)


	5. A Third Option

For hours and the full moon being their only source of light, Shuichi, Maki and Himiko made their way across the rugged land of Jabberwock Island towards the ruined tower, constantly looking around nervously. They did not have an inkling of what could be lurking our there or where, nor what terrors might inhabit an island that had remained isolated from the world for, obviously, quite a long time.

However, the silence was absolute. Except for the sound of the waves, the wind and the steps of their feet, nothing else could be heard.

And, truth be told, it was not the only disturbing thing. The island looked as if it had been the scene of some kind of disaster in the past, or that is what Shuichi deduced by noting the sporadic craters scarring the ground, the strangely fragmented rocks and crags, the fallen logs that more often than not were quite splintered.

“I don’t hear a single animal”, Maki, who had pulled out her knife ever since they set foot in the island and was clutching its handle tightly, said. “This is quite weird. I get that there’s no people here, but animals as well?”

“It seems something terrible happened here…”, Shuichi pointed to a nearby crater dimly lit by the moonlight. “Look at that. It’s rather evident they’re not recent, but they aren’t natural either. That was most likely caused by the impact of an explosive object.”

“Nyeh… Like a meteorite?”, Himiko asked. Thoughtfully, Shuichi studied the crater in question a bit more keenly. _«I know why she asks»_ , he pondered. _«It’s because of our memory about the meteorites ravaging Earth. But those memories are false, and besides, even though I’m no expert on the subject, I’d say a meteorite leaves deeper craters.»_

“I can’t say for sure”, the detective said, “but I doubt those are meteor craters. These remind me more of those that are left by bombs and missiles in war zones.”

“But then…”, Himiko frowned. “You mean there was some kind of battle or something on this island? But how could that be? Everyone says no one’s ever come here! People would remember if such a thing happened, wouldn’t they?”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions yet”, Maki intervened with her usual gruffness. “Shuichi said they remind him of explosive craters, just that. And if I have to be honest here, they remind me of that, too. Bombs aren’t my field of expertise, but I’ve seen their aftermath, or at least in my memories I’ve seen them. But still, they could be something completely different.”

  _«Oh, right»_ , Shuichi thought, frustrated by the scarce, if not inexistent, reliability of his own memory. _«We tend to forget that what we believe are our experiences are but a fabrication, and we can’t trust them blindly.»_

* * *

As they got closer to the tower, however, the signs of destruction became more evident and abundant. The first one that caught their attention was a mass of twisted and quite rusted metal in the center of a crater. And that sight was increasingly common, to the point the three friends, who were shadowed by the tower by then, began having to walk through debris and metal fragments covering a wasteland in which not even grass grew.

“It’s so different from the Jabberwock Island described in Danganronpa’s plot”, Maki said. “What would the author even see to turn such a moor into an idyllic tropical island?”

“That could merely be an artistic license with no relevance. What intrigues me is what could’ve happened here to cause so much destruction. We already knew the tower is manmade, that much was obvious, but all this debris…”, Shuichi shook his head. “Yes, I can’t draw conclusions from them yet, I know. Still…”

He stopped before continuing the line he had in mind. He had noticed a particular disposition of some of the ruins a while before, and if not because it was still night and it was hard to tell, he would have sworn in the past it had been a building that was basically burned to the ground. And as they approached the tower, the same pattern in the rubble showed up with increasing frequency.

“Still, what? Don’t leave that hanging, Shuichi!”, an intrigued Himiko protested.

“Ah… yeah, sure. Sorry, it’s just a theory of mine…”

“Your theories are right more often than not”, Maki noted. “You won’t lose anything by sharing them with us. We may need your insight to resolve the last part of the message.”

Of course, Shuichi had not forgotten that. They were not on a pleasure trip to that desolate island. The detective had been gathering information from everything he saw during their walk, and even though his deductions were not conclusive yet, he figured he would make more sense of them when the right time came.

_Search for the symbol that holds all answers, and give yours._

_When faced with the choice for our_ _future_ _, did we choose_ _hope_ _or_ _despair_ _?_

What could be the symbol that held all answers? Shuichi trusted the tower would offer them more clues about it, once they reached its base.

“Well…”, he began, unsure about how to explain himself. “I have the feeling that, long time ago, not just the tower was built, but a whole community lived here on this island. And not exactly a primitive one, if I have to tell from the structures and materials I think I’ve identified. No, they were people with quite advanced technology, probably even more than the current one.”

“You think so?”, Himiko blinked, amazed at the possibility. “Nyeeeeh… But if they had that, then why is nothing left? Why is everything destroyed?”

“Perhaps if there were people with more advanced technology here, then it could’ve been possible to hide the island from the outside world the way Shuichi suspect they did”, Maki muttered. “But that had to happen long ago. It’s obvious that either they destroyed themselves, or someone else did.”

Shuichi did not say anything. He silently pondered the assassin’s deduction. _«It’s not that uncommon for advanced cultures to get caught up in civil wars. But it’s usual too that they end up destroyed by the same cultures they considered to be inferior»_ , he thought, remembering the events told in all the history novels he had read. _«A setback in progress that culminates in societies advancing until they reach the same level of knowledge the previous culture had, and from there they continue until the same happens again. A contradiction in itself, a constant tug-of-war. That’s just how we walk into the future, right?»_

He sighed. It felt like a vague deduction, but in-depth study of humanity was not his specialty either. Korekiyo Shinguji was the Ultimate Anthropologist, not him.

* * *

The first rays of sunlight rose from the horizon when they finally reached the base of that humongous ruined tower. Looking at it closely, Shuichi was able to confirm that, indeed, it had been built with much more advanced methods than those that existed in the current world. _«Maybe that’s why it still stands, despite all the destruction we’ve seen.»_

The tower was not spared, that was evident. Shuichi threw back his head and narrowed his eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of the antenna crowning its top. He wondered what its purpose had been in the past.

But now they had something way more important to think about than that, and it was solving the second part of the enigmatic message that brought them to Jabberwock Island in the first place. The detective forced himself to focus and not let his innate curiosity get hold of him.

“Nyeh… We’ve gotta look for the ‘symbol that holds all answers’, yes? Do you have any idea of what could it be?”, Himiko asked no one in particular. Maki, who was already searching the metallic and rusty surface, shook her head.

“We don’t even know if this is the place where we have to look, to begin with. But if we have to start discarding, better check that there’s truly nothing here.”

Shuichi sighed and joined his friends in searching the walls of the tower. They looked relatively smooth and plain, lacking any kind of decoration, although the rust had made a dent in them and more than once they thought they found something when it was just an oxide stain.

They circled the tower several times, trusting the sunlight would help them find what they were looking for, but apparently they were wrong. _«What do we have to look for, exactly?»_ , Shuichi wondered. _«If we knew which kind of symbol the message refers to, at the very least, we could have a better idea of what we should be searching for.»_

“I’m hungry”, Himiko protested at what would be the seventh turn around the tower, dragging her feet, “and I’m starting to feel sleepy…”

“This is a waste of time”, Maki grunted. She undoubtedly shared Himiko’s feelings, because Shuichi himself felt hungry and exhausted. “We should return to the boat, eat something and have some rest, and then start searching elsewhere.”

“Yes, but… where else?”, Shuichi replied. “The tower is the only thing that has stood out in all the time we’ve spent walking here. Everything else is just ruins and rubble.”

“Then maybe it’s in those ruins and rubble where we have to look. We can’t be sure if the person who sent us the message was thinking. According to your theory, perhaps in the past there were some other buildings that would’ve got our attention.”

 _«That’s a possibility»_ , Shuichi admitted, but he soon realized a flaw in Maki’s logic. _«Even so, why take the trouble to send a coded message to complete strangers if it wasn’t a desperate situation? No, I’m quite sure whoever did it, they knew something bad would happen, something that would require a third party to look for the answers they hid.»_

“I don’t know. Perhaps you’re right”, the detective said so out of fatigue. Maybe after resting for a while they could take on the enigma from a different angle. “Let’s go back to the boat, then, and we’ll think about this later.”

His friends nodded. But as soon as they turned their back to the tower and walked a few steps, Shuichi and Maki heard a gasp and a thud. When they spun around, startled, they saw that Himiko had tripped and fallen face-first on the ground.

“Himiko!”, Shuichi hurried to kneel down by her side to make sure she was not hurt. “Are you alright?!”

“Nyeeeh…”, she wailed. “I think I am, but that gave me quite the scare!”

Shuichi quickly noticed that there was a metal slab protruding a bit from the dusty ground, and he deduced that, because of Himiko’s shtick of dragging her feet, she stumbled upon an unexpected obstacle.

“Let me see that”, Maki, who had noticed that metal fragment as well, pushed Himiko’s legs away and ran her hand over the thick layer of dust covering it. “This is definitely different from all the metal debris we’ve seen up until now. What do you think, Shuichi?”

He moved to examine the suspicious object. His hand moved over it, trying to guess its shape under the ground, and he figured it was a square slab when he identified what he thought were four parallel corners. _«What’s this? A single metal plate buried in front of the tower?»_

“Let’s try clean it up”, he proposed, and without waiting for an answer he began digging to remove the layers of gravel and dust piling up on the slab. Maki and Himiko’s hands soon joined him, and in a matter of minutes they unearthed a square metal slab in which, despite being rusted, some engraved characters could still be read.

“Nyeh! There’s something written on it!”, Himiko swept the dust covering the plate and narrowed her eyes in order to better decipher what was engraved there. “… It’s in a pretty bad shape, but I think it says… ‘When facing our future, to what did we entrust our choice? Was it hope, or was it despair?’”

Surprised, Shuichi put a hand to his mouth, as he usually did whenever his brain shuffled hypotheses at full speed. The phrasing was different, but the concept remained faithful to the one in the message. And he was rather sure of the reason. _«They knew we’d find this place destroyed. They wanted us to deduce something from it, and they left the clue to follow in the first message.»_

“Check this out”, Maki pointed to the characters reading ‘hope’ and ‘despair’ written in the last line. “Those are reliefs instead of engravings, and I’m betting they work as some sort of buttons. We'll probably have to press the one that is the correct answer.”

Maki was right. So, after all, they had found the enigma. _«Or rather, the enigma found us.»_ And not precisely in a subtle way. Shuichi recalled a particular incident during the killing game in which certain condemnatory evidence found one of their companions in a similar way. And to make matters worse, it had to find the one who would not hesitate to take advantage of a real concussion to fake his own death and pull a _prank_ of all things in the middle of a double-murder investigation.

“Alright”, the detective took a deep breath, trying to focus. “Now is when we’ve got to put all the pieces of the puzzle in place. Let’s start from the beginning… Both riddles begin with mentioning a decision based on a future. What do you think it means?”

“Nyeeeh… Sounds like they were in a very harsh situation and they had to choose between two things that weren’t pleasant”, Himiko replied thoughtfully. Shuichi, who had taken out his pencil and notebook, nodded and wrote it down. It was a logical observation.

“Those two unpleasant things Himiko said could be related to hope and despair”, Maki added. “Fighting back and surviving would be hope, and surrendering and dying would be despair, for example.”

Shuichi wrote down that as well.

“Then let’s suppose the one who left the message was forced to make a choice about their future that, basically, went down to hope or despair”, he said, and put the pencil’s tip to his chin, deep in thought. “That fits the story of Jabberwock Island in Danganronpa’s plot. This is where the survivors of Class 77 and 78 faced Junko Enoshima for the final time.”

“That’s right. Class 78 was the one that locked itself in Hope’s Peak Academy and they defeated Junko Enoshima there the first time. Class 77, who were all Remnants of Despair, destroyed the AI of her that infected the virtual simulation they were in”, Maki recalled.

Virtual simulation. That term again. But as much as its mention nagged him, Shuichi made an effort to keep his deductions to the main issue.

“But all of that…”, Himiko furrowed her nose. “That story isn’t real! It’s all fiction, and what we’re trying to solve is something based on reality.”

“One thing doesn’t hinder the other”, Shuichi replied. He was well aware that keeping an open mind to all kind of possibilities was the most reasonable thing they could do in their situation. “Let’s forget about that for a moment, okay? Because there’s a connection here, even if it’s just symbolic. The terminology is quite clear about that.”

“That connection seems to be closer with Class 77”, Maki observed, “because they were the ones who, even after waking up from the sim, stayed here after preventing the Future Foundation from using the hope video to put an end to the despair that still plagued the world. That allowed the survivors of Class 78 to reopen Hope’s Peak Academy, and that’s where the story ends.”

“Then we’ve got to think about what Class 77 chose!”, Himiko excitedly exclaimed. “They chose hope, didn’t they? They were Remnants of Despair, but then they rebelled against Junko Enoshima and brought her down!”

Maki crossed her arms, glaring at the slab.

“I doubt it’s that easy. Anyone who knew Danganronpa’s story would’ve come to that conclusion, and apparently many people in the world know it.”

Shuichi agreed with her. Danganronpa was based on a constant battle between hope and despair, but somehow it looked like hope always prevailed in the end. The answer could not be that simple, and he could feel the clue was right in front of them, even though it was slipping away from his fingers.

He looked around. The truth was, in the light of day, the landscape was depressing. Ruins and rubble scattered across a wasteland… There was nothing left there. It was clear that whatever battle that took place there, the aftermath was not like those depicted in fiction. The only thing left standing was the tower, almost defiant.

“Maki, you said earlier that fighting and surviving would be hope, and surrendering and dying would be despair, didn’t you?”, Shuichi muttered as he wrote down a series of conclusions at the bottom of the page.

“I did. What of it?”

“That’s unrealistic. Throughout history there have been wars in which those who chose to keep fighting died, and those who surrendered stayed alive. Dying with honor, living with dishonor… Both choices are cruel in their own way.”

Maki gave him a puzzled look.

“And what do you mean with that? In extreme situations, you either survive or die. There’s no middle ground.”

Shuichi closed his eyes. Yes, there was a middle ground of sorts… One they overlooked for quite a long time and it cost them dearly.

“Shuichi?”, Himiko’s voice sounded worried. He wondered what kind of expression had showed up on his face for her to ask.

“You can prevent the conflict from happening in the first place. You can try stopping it once it has started. Or you can refuse to pick a side”, Shuichi’s golden eyes flashed when he opened them again to look at his friends. “What is considered winning a game? Sometimes it’s enough to defeat a single foe, and sometimes it’s as simple as not participating.”

He did not need to explain what he was referring to. Because Maki and Himiko knew it well enough.

They survived the 53rd Killing Game by rejecting both hope and despair. They survived even knowing that the punishment from abstaining to choose was death. But they won in the end, because the wish to continue the game ended up being the participants’ downfall.

“… Are you saying that’s the trick here? A third option?”, Maki asked.

“A third option that it’s not among those given to choose. An option that no one but you can see, and the result of which is a mystery in itself. In our case, it was life or death. We took a gamble, so to speak.”

“Nyeh… We broke the game’s rules, that’s true. We refused to keep playing and we won, and Team Danganronpa lost because they wanted to keep going.”

“That’s exactly it, Himiko. The lesson is, even though third options hold an unknown result at the time of choosing them, they can make the difference and may bring a better outcome. Avoiding conflict is usually the safest bet, but once you’re in, you can simply withdraw. That’s what breaks a constant cycle.”

Shuichi remembered well how he had learned that lesson. What at one time merely looked like one of Kokichi Oma’s countless pranks proved to be the key to solving the mystery of the fifth case and, later on, to defeat the mastermind and Danganronpa itself. _«Kokichi tried to teach me how to break the game and I didn’t even realize until it was too late for him.»_

Truth be told, Kokichi’s withdrawal had been a masterful move. Like an actor who leaves the stage in the middle of the play, he left the audience and the mastermind itself equally dumbfounded and clueless. Unfortunately, the Ultimate Supreme Leader chose to follow the idea that Ancient Rome had for leaving the stage of life when it became too harsh, tedious or dishonorable.

Death.

And to think he allowed himself to be crushed under that hydraulic press, entrusting the future of his crazy, brilliant plan to Kaito Momota without even knowing if it would come to pass. And in its own way, it did: Kaito noted that, despite they found out the truth, the events of the trial would take them a step closer to ending the killing game. And so it had been, even if it did not happen immediately, and anyway neither Kokichi nor Kaito would have lived to see it happen.

 _«Wait…»_ , all of a sudden, Shuichi looked up from his notebook. Maki and Himiko were still discussing the hope and despair issue, but he was not listening anymore. He looked around again, the devastation more evident than ever… until his eyes fell on the tower, and from there to the slab where the enigma was engraved.

And then, everything made sense. It was as if a blinding light lit up in his mind.

“Future!”, the detective euphorically exclaimed, leaning on the slab. Startled, his friends turned away and looked at him as if he had gone crazy.

“Nyeh?!”

“Shuichi, what the hell—”

“Don’t you see? The choice made by whoever left us the message was neither hope nor despair! They entrusted their fate to the future!”, Shuichi pointed to the slab. “Maybe no one would receive his message in a long time, not ever, but in the end it got to us! It wasn’t something they would see in their lifetime, that’s true, but it held a greater purpose, meant to guide those who might come after.”

Maki and Himiko took a few moments to process that reasoning, but Shuichi had no doubt his deduction was correct. They made a similar choice after all, and perhaps that was why the message reached those who could not only decipher it, but _understand_ its meaning.

His fingers traced anxiously the characters on the slab, and to his surprise he found a small relief that went unnoticed up until then right on the character reading ‘future’. There was no doubt, then: that was the answer to the riddle.

“You sure about that, Shuichi?”, Maki asked extremely serious once she realized what he had just found. He nodded and took a deep breath to calm down.

“As sure as I could be.”

“Then what are we waiting for!”, Himiko could barely repress her excitement. “Press it!”

Shuichi breathed again, swallowed the knot in his throat… and pressed his finger to the word ‘future’.

That caused a sudden chain reaction. All of a sudden, the characters on the slab lit up with a bluish light and the ground they were on began shaking. The three teenagers jumped to their feet, and were speechless witnesses of how the slab sank into the ground, revealing metal stairs that went down into pitch-black darkness.

_«An underground structure? Is this what they wanted us, and no one else, to find?»_

Once the tremors ceased, they remained silent. The darkness in which the stairs drowned was downright scary, but at the same time it was as if something pushed them towards it.

They went to the island for this. There, into the bowels of the ground, under the symbol for ‘future’, were all the answers they had been searching for.

Shuichi, Maki and Himiko looked at each other, and then, not saying a single word, nodded.

* * *

The stairs seemed to have no end. The slab had closed over their heads when they reached the fifth step, but at the same time a faint light ran down the walls from their insides. They soon realized they were energy conduits, like those of a computer’s motherboard, and that gave the place a futuristic feel.

As futuristic as it could be considering all they could see was a few steps ahead of them and only because of that dim blue light.

And when, after a long, cautious descent, the stairs finally gave way to a darkened room, the three friends studied their surroundings. They were not particularly impressive, to be honest, because although the floor and walls were covered by those energy conduits, there was not much more to mention, except for the wall that was a few meters away in front of them.

It was a strange wall. Something similar to a pod was embedded in it, and the energy conduits apparently converged in that particular point. Shuichi thought he saw similar pods somewhere before, but he could not exactly remember where—

_«Ah, of course. That false memory of the Ark and the Gofer Project.»_

In similar pods was where, according to their fabricated memories, the sixteen survivors of Earth’s demise remained in stasis for centuries, without aging, waiting for the moment to wake up once the spaceship reached a planet where life was possible.

 _«Wait, what?»_ , Shuichi had to rewind his own train of thought to realize that, if he had just compared those pods with the one in the room, then…

Maki, her knife in hand, had not waited as long as he and Himiko did to explore the room. They followed her close, but at a certain moment, when they stepped into the center of the floor, the light became bright when suddenly the energy conduits lit up at the same time as the pod did. They stood still as statues, not knowing how to react, or if they should run away.

The light dimmed slowly.

Silence.

And then, in a burst of steam, the pod opened.

Shuichi, Maki and Himiko backed away. It was hard to tell in the gloom, but they had glimpsed a human silhouette amongst the steam.

A dull sound confirmed seconds later that, indeed, there had been something inside the pod. Or rather _someone_ who apparently had been roughly greeted by the floor after what one might guess it had been a placid sleep, judging by the yelp they heard.

Long moments passed. All of a sudden, they found themselves facing the figure of a person wearing what looked like a black longcoat, a tie and a hood that hid the upper part of their face, in which they could distinguish the faint glow of two parallel lines, one green and the other red. Astonished, they realized it was a visor attached to the hood itself, and that it was covering their eyes.

The stranger made no move. They seemed to be studying them, and even though their expression was unreadable, Shuichi felt as if his whole being was exposed to the all-seeing eye of a superior being.

“Don’t you dare move”, Maki warned breaking the silence, yet despite her efforts to keep a steady tone as she pointed her knife to the stranger, she was betrayed by the slight trembling of her voice. “Who are you?”

There was no reply for a few seconds. Until, without warning, his lips curved in a half smile, and a gentle chuckle, clearly male, echoed in the room.

“I’m me. No one else.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Dun-dun-dun. There goes the cliffhanger. In my defense, I planned it to be a cliffhanger from the very moment I pictured this scene.
> 
> Also, this chapter is longer than usual. That is why it took me longer to deliver. But I did not want to cut it and leave the continuity dangling. Also, from now on I expect chapters to be longer because, you know. We are diving into the plot. We are in the real deal now.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and as always, I shall gladly listen to critique, read your comments and answer your questions. :)


	6. The Warden

No one moved for what felt like an eternity, even if it were nothing more than a few minutes. The stranger did not mind Shuichi, Maki and Himiko’s overwhelming mistrust, nor the fact that Maki was pointing a knife directly at him. He merely watched them intently, his features hidden by the hood and visor, but he did not seem hostile at all.

Considering he had just come out of a pod in which everything indicated he was kept in stasis, Shuichi could not help but admire his composure and self-control. If he found himself in his place and the first thing he saw after waking up were three individuals he did not know at all, one of them with a knife in hand, the scream he would made would be heard in miles around.

For some reason, just when he thought about it, the hooded man fixed his gaze on him, and Shuichi noticed he was smiling. An amused half smile, to beat. _«What is what he finds so funny about me?»_

“Ah, looks like you guys aren’t as tense as before. I guess now it’s a good time to start breaking the ice a bit”, he said, with that voice that sounded kind and calm, even though there was a well-disguised energetic tone in it. Shuichi could not understand what had made him say that they were not _as_ tense if they still had not moved a single muscle. “Forgive my manners. I should’ve welcomed you in a more proper way, but I’m afraid waking up from stasis left me somewhat more dazed than I figured.”

 _«A proper welcome?»_ , Shuichi was dumbfounded. _«Really? He’s just waken up from stasis and he’s worried about giving us a_ proper _welcome?»_

The man’s relaxed demeanor was bizarre to say the least, and as expected, Maki soon lost patience.

“We asked for your name, not for a riddle. Do you want to die here and now?”

The hooded man turned his gaze to her. He did not even spare the knife a glance, as if he did not even considered it worth mentioning.

“Die? How boring. Well, I’d honestly prefer not to, not while I have certain responsibilities. Yet, it was _you_ who came here in the first place, so, shouldn’t be I the one to ask you first?”

What happened next was so quick that at first Shuichi merely glimpsed two blurring movements. It took him a moment to realize that Maki, who was no longer tolerant to ambiguities, sprinted to the stranger wielding the knife… and he, unperturbed, had stopped her by grabbing her wrist and keeping the knife away from his neck, in a motion so fast their eyes could not follow it. _«How in the world he predicted Maki’s move?! And how could he block her so easily?!»_

“Ah!”, obviously, Maki was not expecting such a blocking move either. Shuichi and Himiko witnessed more than once the Ultimate Assassin’s almost superhuman strength and speed, and watching her neutralized in such a way made them realize that, in that place, they were completely at that man’s mercy.

But he did not even look shaken by the fact Maki tried to kill him. In fact, he was watching her with interest and that kind half-smile in his lips.

“Nice agility”, he commented as if he were a teacher assessing a student. “Right to my neck, but at the same time you calculated the impulse to not stab me by accident. You just wanted to put the knife against me and force me to answer under your death threats. You’ve got quite the polished technique, girl, but I intended to talk to you guys without coercion. You should work your patience before attacking a bit more.”

Quite the polished technique? Maki was not called the _Ultimate_ Assassin for nothing. She had almost cut his throat, and that was all he had to say. And the strangest thing was there was no hint of sarcasm in those words, quite the opposite. It was an honest appreciation.

“Do you expect me to trust you?”, Maki was more taken aback than angry, probably due to that baffling comment.

“I know you want to protect your friends”, the hooded man said, “and I won’t be the one to stop you. But you’ve got no enemies here. Don’t trust me if you want, it’s the wisest thing to do in your predicament, and I won’t blame you. Now if you would sheathe the knife, if you’re so kind, there’s a lot of things that both you and me want to know, and killing each other won’t answer any of them.”

He had not raised his voice and his words were still calm, but they had a firmness Shuichi did not miss: that was an order, and he commanded it in such a way that it was completely irrefutable.

After a brief pause, Maki finally stopped struggling to get her wrist free. The stranger released her immediately, and even though she put the knife back in her jacket, she kept her hand around the handle while glaring at him. He turned his attention to Shuichi and Himiko then; the magician instinctively hid behind the detective and grabbed his arm so hard it almost hurt him.

“There’s nothing to fear”, of course, the stranger noticed Himiko’s reaction. “I know you’ve got plenty reasons to be afraid, but I won’t hurt you, I promise. It’d be absurd to have been waiting to you guys to come who knows for how long just to kill you the moment you get here, don’t you think?”

Those words made Shuichi speak for the first time since the stasis pod opened.

“W-Wait a moment… The message we heard when we woke up… was it yours, sir? Was it you who guided us here?”

“More or less, but yes, you could say so”, the man nodded, and then chuckled. “And please, don’t call me ‘sir’. I guess it’s been a few years, but that makes feel too old.”

“Nyeh… Then who are you?”, Himiko dared to ask. “Are you a mage like me?”

Any other person who knew Himiko would have facepalmed at the question, but the hooded man simply smiled and studied her curiously.

“So you’re a mage, huh? I’m afraid I’m not, though I’ve been compared to one more than once”, he said, and Shuichi did not take long to figure out why it was so unsurprising. “Regarding who I am… the proper thing to do is that you introduce yourselves before, wasn’t that what we agreed?”

 _«I suppose that’s the minimum degree of courtesy expected from us in this kind of situation»_ , Shuichi thought, unsure about what to say. _«Either that, or what he really wants is to make sure in his own way that he can trust us.»_

Sure thing, the kind of trust that man might be hoping for had nothing to do about being literally backstabbed, not after how he blocked Maki’s lunge. If there had been so much trouble keeping that place and its occupant a secret, then what he probably feared the most was some kind of _info_ betrayal.

“Um…”, Shuichi decided to take the lead; perhaps a good-faith show was what the hooded man expected of them. “Well, uh… My name is Shuichi Saihara.”

“Nyeh… And I’m Himiko Yumeno”, Himiko seemed to have gathered courage to do the same as him after that little push; that, and that she looked quite intrigued by the mysterious man. _«If she really believes he’s a mage, that’s not even surprising.»_

The man nodded, smiling, and then fixed his gaze on Maki. She struggled with herself for a few seconds before answering his silent question.

“Maki Harukawa”, she growled more than said.

“Great”, the man’s half-smile deepened as he looked at them one by one. “Shuichi, Himiko and Maki it is, right? Glad to meet you guys. I’m… well, it’s a bit complicated going into details just like that, so to speak”, he shrugged, “so I’ll introduce myself properly later. Just that you won’t feel too uncomfortable around me, I’ll tell you that I was known in code as the Warden.”

“The Warden?”

“That’s right. You may call me that for now, if you want so.”

It was better than nothing. At least they could put a name to… not exactly a face, but the person who, apparently, led them to that place so hidden from the outside world.

“The Warden…”, Himiko repeated and looked up at him even more curious than before. “Nyeeeh… Sounds as if you were a very powerful mage protecting an ancient grimoire!”

Maki frowned and Shuichi rolled his eyes, but the Warden laughed merrily.

“I’m no mage, but it’s indeed true I’ve got something very important to watch over”, he walked to the wall where the pod was still open, and he typed what seemed like a password on a small panel inside it. Then suddenly the wall to their left trembled as the energy conduits lit up, and a hidden passageway in which only the lines of bluish lights could be seen. “Come with me, and I’ll show you.”

“If it’s something you protect so zealously”, Maki replied, suspicious, “then why show it to three complete strangers? What is what you’re scheming?”

The Warden tilted his head and gave her that particular half-smile, as understanding as calculating. He was certainly a mystery, but Shuichi could not help but trust him. It was an unexplainable feeling, as if he were a lifelong friend. The kind of friend that tell things just as they are, but still unconditionally support you nonetheless.

“I trust you guys because you got here. Do you really think that if I had no reason, you’d have set foot on this island?”

And without waiting for an answer, he gestured to them and walked into the darkness of the passageway. The three teenagers looked at each other, but with no other choice left they hurried to follow the Warden wherever he wanted.

 _«At the very least»_ , Shuichi though in a sudden burst of self-pride, _«it seems my theory about only someone like us would be able to cross the storms was right, after all.»_

* * *

 The passageway’s entrance closed once they were all in. Something similar happened with the slab in the surface, but the Warden did not seem to have done anything to close them with such perfect timing. Himiko would not stop stuttering excitedly about whether the Warden was truly a mage or not and that he only denied it because the Code of Mages —whatever that was— demanded to be kept a secret, to which Maki only reacted by throwing exasperated glances at the ceiling. For his part, Shuichi was more interested studying the Warden, who was leading the way.

It was difficult to determine much about his appearance, especially in such a dimly lit hallway, but Shuichi could reach at least a few conclusions: the Warden was tall, broad-shouldered, and even if it was hard to tell his build under his black longcoat, he seemed to be in good shape without being too muscular. Now that he was with his back turned to them, Shuichi noticed that his hood, or perhaps the visor, had some kind of headphones attached and their shape formed a net of sorts behind his head. He wondered for what exactly something that elaborate would be.

What intrigued Shuichi was that judging by his overall physique and voice, the Warden did not seem to be too old. Even though height and voice were not certain proof of age having met Kokichi Oma and Ryoma Hoshi and having Himiko just by his side; all his classmates must had been around seventeen or eighteen at most and there were disparate differences between them in those traits. Therefore he could not venture to deduce the Warden’s —physical— age.

 _«But the way he treats us, there’s a certain familiarity that a person of certain age wouldn’t show us»_ , he thought. _«The Warden acts too informal. It’s as if he’s trying to keep some level of authority that doesn’t feel quite natural to him.»_

Those thoughts were interrupted when the Warden stopped in front of a door. Shuichi, Maki and Himiko had barely caught up to him when the door opened without the man even saying or touching it once more.

“He’s _gotta_ be a mage”, Himiko insisted, whispering excitedly. “I’m sure! I’ve got to ask him to teach me those tricks!”

Even though the magician spoke in a hushing tone, the Warden’s chuckle was proof enough that he heard her, and apparently her belief on his alleged magic was still amusing to him.

“C’mon, guys”, he invited them as he crossed the threshold first and waved them. “We’ve arrived.”

Arrived? Where exactly? They could only see gloom on the other side.

The three friends followed the Warden, who had already walked into the darkness without waiting for them. The door closed after them with a soft sound; that could mean they were trapped, yes, but Shuichi realized he was not particularly scared. He felt uneasy indeed, logically. However, there was something in that place that, for whatever reason… felt comfortable.

“Careful where you step”, they heard the Warden’s voice a few feet away. They tried walking to the source, extremely cautious after his warning. “I’m not sure how who knows how many years might have taken their toll in this place, but we’ll find out in a moment…”, that was when they heard the slight sound of fingers swiftly moving over a keyboard. “Let’s see… yes, this should be enough…”

They had barely time to wonder what the Warden was doing when suddenly the whole room brightened up, starting with a central pillar they had not noticed in the darkness, spreading to the ceiling and the walls like a wave. It was intense at first, so much it almost blinded them, until it slowly faded to a gentle light.

The sight left Shuichi, Maki and Himiko speechless.

The room was _huge_. It was circular-shaped, and in its center stood that pillar marked by energy conduits that merged with the roof. There, at its base, there was a control panel with monitors, holographic keywords and consoles that looked as if they were taken out straight up a sci-fi movie. But that was not the most surprising, not at all.

The floor formed metal streetways between clay-like ground and green lush grass amongst which some tiny colorful flowers could be seen. Around the room there were groups of cubicles distributed in a more or less random pattern that apparently worked as independent rooms. And when he looked up at the walls, Shuichi got a jump scare when, in the middle of what he thought was simply blue, a shadow with a caudal fin appeared. It was then when he realized the two wide walls to the left and right were but transparent glass, and what he had just seen was nothing less than a _shark_.

 _«We’re under the sea»_ , Shuichi’s mouth was hanging open in amazement. _«It’s like an underwater base of sorts, but how can there be any plant-life inside here?»_

“Alright! I’ll have to check everything thoroughly, but for now things seem to work as they should”, the Warden, who was still typing on the control panel at the foot of the pillar, looked genuinely happy when he turned to them and opened his arms wide. “Well, now I can give you a proper welcome! Welcome to Future’s Cradle, of which I’m the Warden and overseer.”

“Nyeh? Future’s Cradle?”, Himiko, whose eyes shone excitedly at the sight of such a place, asked. “That’s the name of a truly magical and mysterious lair!”

Maki, who despite her usual stern expression had not been able to mask the surprise in her face and was almost enraptured staring at the transparent walls that allowed to see the undersea scenery, turned to the Warden.

“Is this what you wanted us to show? What does it even have to do with us?”

“That’s quite the long story. But I’d assume yours is, too”, the Warden waved for them to come closer, and so they did. He had sat on the swivel chair in front of the control panel, his back to the large monitor above it. “You may sit on the floor, no need to be shy about that.”

After hesitating a moment, the three friends made themselves comfortable; Shuichi and Himiko followed the Warden’s invitation and sat on the metal floor, while Maki chose to lean on a console, careful to not touch anything she should not.

“Um… May I ask you something, Warden?”, Shuichi timidly said; the man told them not to call him ‘sir’ or the like, but the detective was not exactly socially gifted. However, the Warden nodded.

“Of course. Though I think I know what you’re going to ask me”, again, Shuichi felt as if the eye of an all-knowing being pierced through him, but there was no malice in the Warden’s smile. “I’m not concealing my face because of aesthetics. It was necessary until I was completely sure of your intentions, of who you are and why you’re here. And because in the outside world, as far as I know, many people would _kill_ to know where I am. So, before we begin talking on the same level of trust, tell me about your talents.”

Shuichi was speechless. It was true he had wanted to ask the Warden about why he had not shown them his face, but how had he known it? _«Could it be that he’s truly a mage like Himiko says? It wouldn’t be even surprising at this stage.»_

“Our talents?”, Maki frowned. The Warden nodded.

“You don’t have to be a genius to realize you have Ultimate talents. You’ve introduced yourselves by them, actually”, he chuckled, and Maki grumbled under her breath. “I can get the whole picture, but I prefer having your confirmation.”

They shared a quick glance. Finally, Himiko spoke first:

“Nyeh… I’m the Ultimate Mage!”, and, as usual, she paused after her claim, “… but I’m officially the Ultimate Magician.”

The Warden’s smile slightly widened. Shuichi guessed that he understood, or confirmed his theories, about the girl’s previous comments.

“I’m the Ultimate Assassin”, Maki said dryly. The Warden watched her carefully a couple of seconds before nodding. He probably deduced Maki’s talent as soon as he blocked her attack a while ago.

“And I…”, Shuichi hesitated, as he always did whenever he had to talk about his talent. Even before learning it was not as real as he thought, the fact that he was an apprentice made him feel even more unworthy of it. “Well, I’m supposed to be the Ultimate Detective, but—”

“Ultimate Detective. How curious”, the Warden said, looking at him with renewed interest. “I knew someone once who had the same talent as you. You two are rather different, but I’m sure you’d get along.”

Another Ultimate Detective? _«I bet they were much more efficient than me… huh, wait a moment!»_ , Shuichi pushed his insecurities away from his mind to analyze the Warden’s comment. _«He met someone who had an Ultimate talent? Those talents are fabricated by Team Danganronpa to emulate Danganronpa’s plot about Hope’s Peak Academy, aren’t they? How is it possible, then?»_

“Right, now that I know who you are, it’s only fair you know who I am, too”, the Warden cut short his thought when, after a pause, he stared at them one by one before lifting his hands to the hood. “My identity is hard to explain… so I tend to introduce myself through my talent. I’m the Ultimate Hope… the first one, that is.”

The hood, together with the visor, fell backwards, revealing the Warden’s face at last.

He was a young man with short and somewhat spiky brown hair; a single strand stood defiantly amidst it. His looks were not particularly striking, except for his eyes: the right one was warm green, while the left one was of an intense red that seemed to pierce through whoever was fixed on. The irises were strange, as if they were target reticles that analyzed to the last detail of everything around him.

But that was not what surprised Shuichi the most.

_«I’ve seen that face before!»_

“Nyeh! I know you!”, obviously, Himiko and Maki thought the same. The person in front of them was one of whom Tsumugi Shirogane had cosplayed during the last Class Trial.

But of course, the Warden had no way to know that, judging by how he responded to Himiko’s shock.

“So I’m still remembered out there? Oh well, I guess that means if I ever have to go out, I’ll have to keep my face covered”, he said as he shrugged. “People knew me as Izuru Kamukura after going through the process that transformed me into the Ultimate Hope, but my closest friends called me by my birth name, Hajime Hinata. Choose the one you like the most; as I always say, they’re both me.”

 _«Hajime Hinata»_ , Shuichi remembered that name now that the Warden said it. Tsumugi had mentioned it, but the situation in which she did had not been the best one to memorize names. Perhaps because it sounded like the most familiar, he mentally chose that one.

But still, that was not the issue. Supposedly Danganronpa’s story was all fiction, and that was why Tsumugi could cosplay its characters without being affected by what she called ‘cospox’, the allergic reaction to cosplaying as real people.

Then, what was doing a character, from Hope’s Peak Academy’s arc no less, right in front of them?

True, he was not the exact same person Tsumugi cosplayed. His features were sharper, less youthful, his build seemed older, and then of course were his mismatched eyes. They were the same person… and at the same time, they were not.

“How is this possible?”, Maki was pale. “How can you be here?”

He did not seem surprised by how bewildered the three teenagers were, but Shuichi was almost certain that it was not precisely for the reason he believed they were.

“Yeah, I know. It’s evident that I have to catch up, because honestly, I can’t tell you for certain how much time I’ve spent in stasis. I guess that, for three teens with Ultimate talents to get here, several years must have passed, but I imagine that after word spread that nobody survived the battle of Jabberwock Island and—”

“I wasn’t talking about that”, Maki interrupted him, and for a second Shuichi regretted it because what he was saying sounded relevant, putting aside that they were apparently talking to a fictional character. “How is it possible that you even _exist?”_

That _did_ take him by surprise. His eyes, one green and one red, stared at Maki as if what she had said was not amongst all the reactions he expected to get from them.

“What?”

He looked genuinely baffled. Shuichi put a hand to his mouth, trying to sort his thoughts out. What was the best way to tell someone that, allegedly, he did not even exist in the real world?

“Nyeh…”, luckily or unfortunately, Himiko got ahead of him. “You’re supposed to be a fictional character! You’re one of the students that were in the second killing game in Danganronpa’s story!”

Sure, that was enough to shatter the Ultimate Hope’s composure. He looked at them, one by one, incredulous; his eyes, especially the red one, seemed to burn through them in search of some kind of proof that they were joking.

“Danganronpa? What the hell is that?”, he asked, his voice louder and more brusque than the kind tone he had kept until then. “Are you serious? You’re telling me that out there we’re considered _fiction?”_

There was a note of anger sizzling in that last word.

“As much as I’d like to say we’re not, that’s the truth”, Shuichi dared to murmur. There was no room for any kind lie there, so he decided to tell the last part, something he deemed the Warden should know. “And, to be honest… you could say our talents are fiction as well. They were a fabrication implanted to us by Team Danganronpa in order to…”, he hesitated, feeling that piece of information would be as pleasant to him as it was for them, “to be part of the 53rd Killing Game.”

There was a long, long pause.

Until, finally, the Warden, who was staring at the floor undoubtedly processing all those dire news, looked up at them. His expression was as serious as it was determined.

If Shuichi had any doubt left that the person in front of him was the real deal, it disappeared as soon as he noted the fury and outrage sparkling behind his eyes. It was the look of someone who knew exactly what the three friends had went through. _«And I don’t think he’s going to sit idly by, if he really is who he says he is.»_

“Very well”, after taking a deep breath, Hajime Hinata turned his chair around to face the control panel as if he was getting ready to confront a terrible foe. “Looks like I’ve got to catch up on much more than I first thought, and that the killing games still exist is something I did _not_ predict to be part of it. Let’s get moving, then. Tell me everything you know about this thing you called ‘Danganronpa’.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Fourth character entering the stage and ready to wreck things up. After he learns what is happening exactly, of course.
> 
> And what is what he has to tell the kids? Find out in next installments! (Which I hope will take place soon.)
> 
> Thanks for reading, and as always I shall be most glad to read your comments and answer your questions. :)


	7. A Truth Into Lies

“Let me see if I got it”, Hajime said after listening to the three friends for a while, putting a hand to his forehead. It would have been easy imagining his brain literally fuming. “Nowadays in the outside world, people believe that Hope’s Peak Academy, the Tragedy and everything related to them is fiction. They gave that compendium of events the name of ‘Danganronpa’, and a company has taken up that name and decided to make profit by recreating the killing games having normal kids audition and participate, and then they brainwash them, implement an Ultimate talent and force them to kill each other while everything is broadcasted to the entire world, and according to you everyone follows all that happens with quite the interest. And counting the one in which you were involved, there’s been a total of 53 killing games to date. Have I missed anything else?”

Shuichi, Maki and Himiko shook their heads. Hajime had summed it up perfectly.

“You know, the worst of all this is that I can’t even say I’m surprised”, the Warden sighed in deep resignation. “Not as much as I should be, that is. I already imagined that things might not have gotten better since I entered stasis, but to have degenerated to such level…”

“Nyeh… Why were you inside that pod, Hajime?”, Himiko asked. They had chosen, apparently, to call him by his birth name instead of the one given to him after the project that turned him into the Ultimate Hope.

“Everyone considers the events of the Tragedy nothing more than fiction”, Maki said, her eyes shooting a drilling glare to Hajime, “and yet here you are, one of its so-called ‘characters’. Unless all of this is another trap set up by Team Danganronpa and you’re just a phony.”

Shuichi stayed silent; he preferred evaluating his conclusions before voicing them. There was the possibility that Hajime were actually a fraud like Tsumugi Shirogane when she tried to pass herself off as Junko Enoshima during the last Class Trial, but he was rather sure that was not the case. _«Hajime_ is _the Ultimate Hope. If it was only his words, then it’d be logical to distrust him, but a normal person couldn’t have stopped Maki the way he did.»_

“Me, a phony?”, Hajime let out an indignant huff. “Those bastards who call themselves Team Danganronpa convince the rest of the world that all our suffering and the sacrifices we had to make are nothing but fiction, and _I’m_ the phony? Are you kidding me?”

“… I didn’t mean that”, Maki quickly realized she screwed up making that comment. “But your story contradicts everything the world believes. You expect to simply believe yours when it’s so different from what we’ve been told?”

“If your criteria to determine what’s true and what is not is whatever others tell you instead of thinking and reasoning for yourself, then you’ll swallow up one lie after another and you won’t even realize you are, and you’ll reach a point in which when someone tells you what you believed to be the truth is actually false, you’ll refuse to see it”, Hajime replied. “When a majority of people believes in something, doesn’t imply that’s true nor right. And what is what happens when one truth clashes with another that contradicts it?, then the foundations of your beliefs are threatened, and the fastest and safest solution is resorting to denial. How many wars and senseless deaths happened throughout history because a belief or an ideal in which certain groups of people, including the person who came up with it, considered it the absolute truth? People are more likely to believe their own lies than you’d ever imagine.”

Maki did not know what to say to that. The Warden’s reasoning had no room for reply, and Shuichi completely agreed with him. But not just because it followed the same logic as the detective’s, but because it reminded him of words that, again, turned out to be painfully accurate.

_Trick the entire world, and it will become the truth. The real truth isn't that great anyway._

Was it not ironic that the liar amongst liars had been way closer to the truth than those who turned their back on him for the same lies they claimed they hated and yet constantly resorted to? Shuichi felt like going back in time and slapping some sense into his killing-game-self for not stopping to listen to Kokichi Oma.

“Hajime…”, Shuichi muttered; he turned his mismatched eyes to him. “Can you tell us what truly happened? Perhaps, if we put both versions together, we might understand why the contradictions exist, even if it’s just a little.”

Hajime put his hand to his chin, watching him intently. It was impossible to know what was going through his mind whenever he did that, but Shuichi made the effort to endure the scrutiny of those eyes that seemed to pierce through his very being.

“You might say you’re an apprentice, but I’d say you’re a full-fledged Ultimate Detective alright”, he finally said. Shuichi blinked, surprised by the unexpected compliment that came from none other than the Ultimate Hope. “Very well. I’ll tell you everything I remember, but I can’t tell you what happened after I entered stasis because I don’t know. We’ll have to find out about that together, okay?”

“All right!”, Himiko exclaimed. “I wanna know once and for all why those Team Danganronpa scoundrels lied to us all!”

 _«If Himiko actually called Team Danganronpa ‘scoundrels’, then it’s getting real»_ , Shuichi thought as Hajime got ready to tell them his story. _«Though, to be honest, she’s not alone in the sentiment. And I think I’m speaking for everyone here.»_

* * *

“I assume you know the story of Hope’s Peak Academy, of the Tragedy and how Class 78’s survivors and Class 77’s members defeated Junko Enoshima, stopped the Future Foundation’s collective brainwashing plan and began working to reopen the academy.”

“We know the story overall and maybe not the finer details, but yes”, Maki said, and Shuichi and Himiko nodded. “In Danganronpa’s main plot, the last thing it’s told about Hope’s Peak is that it was reopened.”

Hajime slightly frowned. It was evident that what he was going to tell them was not exactly pleasing to him.

“So they cut out the so-called ‘fiction’ in the happy ending. How predictable”, he sighed as he crossed his arms. “It’s almost boring. Well, things stayed quiet for a few years after that. Hope’s Peak began scouting new Ultimate students, while we who once were Remnants of Despair lived here on the island, hidden away from society and in peace. The world seemed to be swiftly recovering from the despair spread by the Tragedy, and at the time we honestly thought things would finally change for the better.”

“But they didn’t go that way”, Shuichi guessed. “What failed?”

“I’d ask _who_ failed, and I’d say we did, since we failed to foresee what would happen. We thought that by restoring what was destroyed to what it was before, Hope’s Peak in particular, everything would go back to normal”, Hajime shook his head. “Big mistake. We didn’t see, or didn’t want to see, that once the world is changed in such a drastic, brutal way, there’s no turning back. And it cost us dearly, trying to restore the old order.”

Brief silence. Maki broke it with a simple deduction.

“The people didn’t share your ideal.”

“That’s a nice way to put it”, Hajime let out a half-hearted chuckle. “It’s undeniable that the Tragedy ultimately took place because of Hope’s Peak Academy’s arrogance. Yeah, it was Junko Enoshima who moved the threads that set the disaster in motion, but by then corruption had settled and that made things loads easier for her. But when the world began to recover from despair, Junko Enoshima was already dead, and as often happens in these cases, people sought someone to bear responsibility, or rather, guilt. They started to accuse not only Hope’s Peak Academy, but everyone who had an Ultimate talent.”

“Nyeh?! Is that true?!”, Himiko’s eyes widened. “But why? Talent is supposed to be a good thing for the world! That’s why Hope’s Peak studied it, right?”

“Well, that’s… debatable at least. It’s true that Hope’s Peak was founded to research the Ultimate talents in order to bring hope to humanity, but when the Tragedy happened, that ideal had become much more selfish. Also, think about the Remnants of Despair, or about me, as living examples of what happens when talent is used with a destructive purpose”, Hajime replied, and Himiko could not help but agree with him. “That’s the argument they brandished against us, actually. There were people who believed those who had Ultimate talents were a potential threat to society. That idea settled deep down, it became a movement in itself that got more and more supporters, until it reached the highest spheres. And then there was no way to stop it. No matter how Ultimate you are, it’s quite the lesson in humility knowing that you’re helpless when allegedly ‘normal’ people are the ones who truly hold all power if they unite to create a common front.”

Shuichi, who had turned pale, remembered that they, teenagers given an Ultimate talent, had been completely at the mercy of an audience made up of ordinary people. People who considered those exceptional kids nothing more than fiction, and therefore they were not relevant at all. _«Something so alien to them, they don’t even perceive it as real.»_

“Even though the governments never took a side in paper”, Hajime continued, “it was quite evident that many of them supported the movement with resources, funds and weaponry. They washed their hands off the issue because it wasn’t convenient for them that Hope’s Peak Academy rose to hold the power and influence it did in the past. And then the persecutions, kidnappings and executions began. People considered a threat anyone who gave signs of having an Ultimate talent, whether it was a Hope’s Peak student or not, and at the beginning of all this the most common thing was that these innocent people ended up lynched in the street.”

The story was horrifying. Shuichi had a hard time believing it, but deep down he was well aware that it was not news at all in the history of humanity. Especially before and after a war or a social catastrophe.

“What did Hope’s Peak Academy about it?”, Maki asked. She was the only one of the three friends who kept a relatively neutral expression.

“Why, it basically became a refuge not just for Ultimate students, but for anyone who was persecuted. That was the time I was the most busy, because the headmaster —an old friend of mine— and I actively worked together to strengthen our safety measures, both in the Academy and here in this island. It came to the point we realized we couldn’t win, and that was when we put in motion the plan that has brought you here.”

The Warden made an eloquent hand motion to the entire room. Shuichi understood, and he was left speechless for a moment.

“You mean... you built this place to protect the Ultimates?”

“That was the idea. Our intention was to build two shelters instead of one, and Future’s Cradle was the one we managed to because Class 77 and I weren’t targeted since no one knew where we were hiding, and so we could fully dedicate ourselves to finish it on time. But then, it was when everything went to hell.”

“If it had worked out, then would’ve been a community of Ultimate students or even their progeny living here”, Maki observed. “You couldn’t bring them, right?

Hajime frowned as he stared at the floor.

“We still had to work on the details of this place when Hope’s Peak Academy was unexpectedly assaulted. If I’d been there, maybe I could’ve prevented what happened, but the headmaster asked me to keep this shelter safe at all costs”, he said. “Class 78 and what was left of the Future Foundation tried to protect the students, but the attack was ruthless. In his last message, the headmaster told me that he and the survivors he managed to reunite were hidden in the unfinished shelter, and warned me to get ready for the worst to come.”

“So the headmaster didn’t die in the attack?”, Himiko asked, to which Hajime briefly closed his eyes before answering.

“As far as I know, he didn’t. But his decision was a code no one else but me would understand, in case someone intercepted the communication. You see, the shelter wasn’t finished, but we’d already installed some stasis pods in there as an emergency precaution, and we had checked that they worked. It was a hard choice, but that shelter still had no resources, and as things stood it was crystal clear they wouldn’t be able to get out of there in a long time. The most sensible decision was to get into the pods, but that’s all I know.”

Shuichi wondered if Hope’s Peak Academy’s headmaster, Hajime’s friend, would be Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Lucky Student that became an Ultimate Hope just like him, though in a different sense. In his fabricated memories involving him and his friends being students at Hope’s Peak, Makoto Naegi had been the headmaster, who in addition planned the Gofer Project to protect them from humanity’s extinction, and coincidentally, that plan involved stasis pods. _“Could it be that there’s a glimpse of truth in our fake memories, after all? Some sort of reference to what truly happened?”_ However, he did not dare to ask Hajime directly. It seemed like a very sour memory to him.

“So Hope’s Peak Academy was burned to the ground, and the students who survived the massacre but didn’t join the headmaster’s group of survivors, had to run for their lives. This made a difference in my plans, because while raiding Hope’s Peak, the attackers found some information and material that shouldn’t have ever fallen into the wrong hands”, Hajime made a grimace as he barely held back his anger. “There were two things in particular that forced me to improvise: the first was the location of Jabberwock Island and that the Remnants of Despair were hidden here; the second was the Neo World Program.”

“The Neo World… wait, isn’t that the low-end virtual simulation program Miu tried to use to kill the annoying little shit that was Kokichi?”, Maki recalled, blinking in surprise. Hajime’s reaction to her words was rather similar.

“ _Low-end_ virtual simulation? The Neo World Program was created from the life-long work of the most brilliant minds that attended Hope’s Peak Academy. The simulation is so well made you could be inside it right now and you wouldn’t even notice, unless you got a bit too overboard with eccentricities”, he chuckled, almost with irony. “That’s how we found out we were inside it, to an extent, and still we had to be told word by word to actually believe it. The thing is, this program was made only for medical and therapeutic purposes, but unfortunately Junko Enoshima proved it could have other utilities when she got us into a killing game inside the simulation. This, of course, the people didn’t know about, but they soon learned the program could be used to erase or alter the memories and personalities of whoever they put inside. And so they began using it to brainwash Ultimate students or talented individuals on the run whenever they caught them, to turn them into people without talent and memories, in order to eradicate the threat of Ultimate talents.”

If the story was not already horrifying enough, the last part turned it straight up scary. Shuichi, Maki and Himiko did experience in their own flesh —or rather, brain— what it was to lose all memory of your life to then be implanted an artificial personality. And what Hajime had just told them felt too familiar to their tastes.

Too… familiar.

 _«Wait…»_ , a vague idea, one that sounded almost ridiculous, began forming in Shuichi’s mind. _«Could it be_ — _?»_

“We were at a harsh crossroads”, Hajime’s story interrupted the detective’s thoughts. “We knew they’d come for us, that was certain. But we also wanted to help those who were being persecuted and abducted, yet we couldn’t risk this shelter being found, because it was the only one that was ready to be fully operational. I had no idea about how to deal with the situation, but my companions were the ones who gave me the answer…”, the Warden closed a fist in frustration. “They made me see that I couldn’t save them all. It was beyond me, and that’s why I had to rely on them… so in order for me, the Ultimate Hope, to survive and to protect others, Class 77 had to die.”

That last line left Shuichi, Maki and Himiko frozen in horror. Hajime spat it out as if it were the greatest shame of his whole life.

“What kind of logic was that? You’re the Ultimate Hope. Aren’t you supposed to have all talents? You could defeat any foe with ease, couldn’t you?”, Maki asked glaring in confusion at Hajime. He took a deep breath before speaking again.

“Yeah, I could’ve defended the island by myself. But I’m not sure to what extent, and for how long. Besides, as things were at the time, I’d have had to fight a whole world that wanted us dead. Not only were we Ultimate students, but the former Remnants of Despair: the culprits the closest to Junko Enoshima they would ever find”, he explained. “One of our companions was the first to make a hard decision to try and protect us. It was a desperate choice, and even though I managed to make it work, it wasn’t until after the worst happened. I couldn’t do it in time because it was the last detail we added to the security measures. When the fighter jets came and the first wave of missiles hit the island…”, Hajime paused. “My friends forced me to hide in here. I knew that once I got into the shelter, I wouldn’t see them again. To say they had to drag me wouldn’t be inaccurate. I guess, deep down, I _knew_ I had to survive, for the sake of those who still needed me… We sealed the entrance shut, and then I was forced to listen for like two days to the raging battle that was being fought out there. But hearing the explosions and screams wasn’t the worst, you know? The worst was the silence that came later. Because that meant Class 77, my friends and companions, were dead. Only one of them was still alive, but that was a technicality… No one would say that predicament counted as ‘life’.”

There was a long silence. Even though Hajime kept his composure, one could easily guess the frustration and pain behind his restrained expression. Shuichi realized that this had to be the first time he told his story to someone. _«I can perfectly imagine how he must’ve felt»_ , the detective looked away. _«Knowing that you’re alive because your companions and friends died for you.»_

“Nyeh…”, Himiko muttered, as pale as wax. Maki did not know what to say either. However, Hajime lifted up his mismatched eyes to them.

“In spite of everything, you’re here, and that’s precisely for what all my friends sacrificed themselves”, he said with overwhelming sincerity. “I didn’t go into stasis right away. I had to set the security system we planned at the last minute to honor my friend’s choice, to make sure the shelter’s conditions would remain in best shape even after many years that might come, and overcome my grief a bit so as not to wake up with my companions’ death too recent in my memory… I don’t know anything else about what happened in the outside world after that, but at the time I honestly didn’t give a damn. There were only two outcomes for me: to stay in dreamless, painless stasis forever, or waking up once our efforts paid off. And here you are. Three survivors of the Ultimate Hunt.”

Undoubtedly, Hajime’s intention was to tell them how much it meant to him that their arrival gave a purpose and meaning to his friends’ death and sacrifice at last, but all sentimentality was lost when Shuichi, Maki and Himiko almost jumped like a spring on the spot when they heard the last part.

“Did you just say ‘Ultimate Hunt’?!”, Shuichi wanted to make sure he had heard it well. Because he knew that term, just like Himiko and Maki, and if Hajime knew it too, then… _«If our memory is truly fake, then what are these coincidences?»_

“Ah, didn’t I mention it before? That’s how the Ultimate students' persecution was called after Hope’s Peak destruction”, Hajime said, surprised by the three friends’ reaction. “It specifically refers to the social movement that got hold of the Neo World Program and used it to turn them into talentless individuals. As far as I remember, they still called themselves that way when I went into stasis. I assume that, if you recognize the name, it’s because they still exist out there.”

“Not exactly…”, Maki bit one of her nails. “We do remember an ‘Ultimate Hunt’, but in our memories, it happened because we were the Ultimate students chosen to be the survivors of humanity, yet we refused since we didn’t want to leave our friends and family behind, and we ran away. Then a doomsday cult appeared, one that said that humanity had brought their extinction upon itself and that it should accept judgment, and that’s why the Ultimate Hunt happened: they hunted us down to kill us and thwart the Gofer Project.”

 _«A doomsday cult that said humanity brought their destruction upon itself»_ , Shuichi thought, his brain making connections at high speed. _«If you translate that to what Hajime told us, then… the cult would be the Ultimate Hunt itself, and the Ultimate students who were meant to be the hope of humanity… could it be they were the ones who fled from Hope’s Peak Academy’s assault?»_

“That’s quite the twisted way to turn around what truly happened”, it was as if Hajime had read Shuichi’s mind, to make that comment. “I don’t have the slightest clue for what went down in the outside world if the version’s changed so much, and I guess neither do you once they erased your previous selves’ memories.”

“That’s true”, Himiko furrowed her nose. “Nyeeeh… How are we gonna know what happened? We remember a family we don’t have, a time in Hope’s Peak Academy we didn’t spent, and now the fake Ultimate Hunt…”

“We’ve got ways to find out”, the Warden spun his chair to the control panel, “but it’ll take some time. Fortunately, those false memories you have might be a clue by themselves.”

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it. If someone’s been implanting pasts and personalities throughout those killing games you say Team Danganronpa set up, either they have an extremely productive imagination that is plot-hole-proof to beat if it’s _that_ convincing, or they took that kind of information from another source. And even though its management not exactly idiot-friendly, the Neo World Program is the only thing I can think of that is capable of subtracting and implanting memories without wreaking real havoc on a human brain. The fact that you remember names of things that happened in a different way may mean they’re resorting to data from the stolen memories of people in whom the program was used.”

  _«Then, after all, there might be a shred of truth in what we remember»_ , Shuichi thought. _«The Neo World Program… if it’s really capable of making people believe they’re experiencing something that isn’t real, that’s_ — _»_

His train of thought stopped short. That feeling again that he had been having for days now, as if something wanted to break through his mind and could not.

“But luckily for us”, Hajime continued speaking, his back turned to them and swiftly typing on the control panel, “I’m kind of an expert in that program. I know what it can do and what not. And either Team Danganronpa has hidden, deeper motivations what we can’t grasp just yet, or they’re particularly stupid and cruel wasting its potential to merely recreate the killing games we had to go through.”

Yes, it was undeniable that having the Ultimate Hope, who survived the killing game that took place into the Neo World Program and later managed to wake up those who died in the simulation, on their side would be indeed of great—

 _«Wait, what_ — _what?!»_

All of a sudden, Shuichi’s heart skipped a beat.

“Hajime”, he said with a thin voice. The revelation he just had had taken his breath away, and the Warden surely noticed because he turned to look worriedly at him, “what do you mean with that… Team Danganronpa is using the Neo World Program to recreate the killing games?”

It was then when Maki and Himiko were hit by the same revelation as him.

“Nyeh?!”, Himiko shouted in utter disbelief.

“Don’t tell me…”, Maki muttered, her face white as a sheet. She put a hand to her mouth, and could not keep talking.

Hajime stared at them one by one, until he understood why they were so shocked.

“So you didn’t know?”, he said, and helplessly chuckled as he gave them a kind smile. “The killing game in which you participated took place within the Neo World Program. I’m not sure for how long they’ve been using it for that purpose, but there’s no doubt the one in which you got involved was a virtual simulation.”

Light was made in Shuichi’s mind when the conclusion that had wanted to take shape in there almost since he woke up in the outside world finally broke through like a red-hot iron, a whole torrent of implications trailing after and threatening to drown his train of thought.

Danganronpa’s 53rd Killing Game had taken place inside the Neo World Program. The very same program capable of making a perfectly lucid subject to believe everything happening inside it was real, of turning lies into a truth and a truth into lies.

 _«A… a virtual simulation»_ , Shuichi felt as if everything collapsed around him, revealing new truths in the midst of chaos and rubble, a whole different picture in which what before seemed impossible now it was possible. They saw past the first and foremost lie, and in so doing they took a step into the path into the truth.

Once again, that familiar laugh clearly echoed in his mind, like an irritating yet gentle chime. And this time, the Ultimate Detective understood _why._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Hajime Hinata firing some brutal truth bullets, and the revelation that was indeed in the story tags and hardly comes as a surprise but at the same time I tried to make as fucked up as I was able to. Because yes, I cannot tell why because spoilers, but this was definitely not a jolly killing game simulation in which kids go in and everything is happy and there are unicorns and rainbows. 
> 
> (Well, maybe just rainbows, considering how the V3 cast is made up of 95% gay goodness.)
> 
> Thanks for reading! As always, I shall be most glad to read your comments, listen to critique and answer your questions. <3


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